IDENTITY

Identity Model

 

Identity - is how you see yourself.

Righteousness – is how God see’s you.

Salvation - is choosing to see yourself the way God see’s you.

 

We have Law and Grace. The cross separates Law from Grace. The cross brought the Law to an end and introduced Grace. We no longer seek righteousness under the Law, we receive righteousness under Grace. When we were seeking righteousness we were seeking our identity, because our identity is in righteousness. When we receive righteousness we receive our identity. We either seek our identity or we receive our identity. Law is working for your identity, Grace is receiving your identity. You can choose to remain under Law working for your identity or you can receive your identity by Grace.

 

We have our condition and our position. Our condition is the fact of who we are and where we are in this world. Our position is the truth of who we are and where we are in Christ.

 

Our condition is based on facts, our position is based on truth. Fact and truth are not the same thing. Facts are temporary and they change, truth is eternal and doesn’t change. It may be raining – that would be a fact, but when the rain stops and the sun comes out the facts change. Facts change all the time because they rely on prevailing and temporary conditions. Truth does not change, truth by its very nature is unchanging. So my condition in this world changes because it is based on prevailing facts but my position in Christ doesn’t change because it is based on eternal truth.

 

What is the relationship between Law and Grace and my condition and my position?

Law can only point out and acknowledge my temporary condition in this world, it cannot acknowledge my position because the Law is not based on faith it is based on works.

Grace can only point out and acknowledge my position in Christ, it cannot acknowledge my condition because Grace is based on faith and not on works.

 

What is the relationship between Law and Grace and my identity and righteousness?

Law pulls your identity down to your condition in this world, Grace lifts your identity up to your position in Christ. 

 

Where does identity come from?

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Our identity comes from God, we are created in his image and likeness.

 

How did we lose our identity?

So Adam and Eve were created in the image and the likeness of God, they were like God. Satan came to Eve and said to her “if you eat of this fruit”, if you do something you will be like God. May I suggest that Satan wasn’t that concerned about what she knew of God’s word he was more concerned about what she knew about her identity. She could have said ‘I don’t have to do anything to be like God, I am already like God’, but she was confused about her identity. She decided to do something to get the identity she already had.

And here is the revelation - because when you put your identity in what you do, you lose your identity in who you are. And once your identity is in what you do, you have to keep on doing to keep your identity. When you take part of who you are and transfer it into what you do, then you have to keep on doing to be who you are. Eve was already like God but when she did something to be like God she was no longer like God. She lost her identity. She transferred who she was into what she did, her identity was then found in what she did and not in who she was. She established the principle of Law or works which is the belief that I have to do something to be someone.

Identity is now what I work for and no longer what I have.

Satan wants you on the treadmill of identity so he can take your peace and your rest. He wants you to be forever working for what you already have.

When you have lost your identity in who you are you start looking for it in what you do.

So what resulted from the loss of identity -

Gen 3:16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

 in pain you shall bring forth children.

 Your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.”

 

Where do women most often seek their identity when they have lost their identity in Christ? In their role as a mother and as a wife.

And the curse to Adam:

     Gen 3:19 ​​​​​​​By the sweat of your brow you will eat food
       until you return to the ground,

He received the curse of work. Where do men most often seek their identity when they have lost their identity in Christ? In their work.

Now there is nothing wrong with motherhood, or being a wife or doing a hard day’s work, but if you are seeking your identity in those things then you have missed it.

So in losing his identity man then has to work for his identity. So man now has only two choices - either you have to work for your identity or you have to receive by faith.

 

In the book of Luke 10:38 – 42 we have the story of these two choices reflected in the story of Mary and Martha. Often when the bible speaks of two things or two people it is contrasting different spiritual truths. In this case it is no different as is apparent even from the names of these two women. The name Mary is derived from an Egyptian word and means ‘beloved’. The name Martha means ‘bitter’. So we have one who is beloved and one who is bitter. Is it not true that when you find one who is ‘beloved’ you will not have to look far to find another who is ‘bitter’. Especially if they are sisters in the same house.

What does it mean to be ‘beloved’?

We find the record of someone who was beloved in Mark 1:11

Mark 1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 

When Jesus went to be baptised and before he had started his ministry or done any miracles God affirms his identity by declaring his love and pleasure in his son apart from anything he had done.  

So someone who is beloved is someone who is aware that they are loved for who they are apart from what they do.

In contrast then, someone who is bitter is someone who believes they are only loved for what they do. 

 

Luke 10:38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted with all the preparations she had to make, so she came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her.”

 

So Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to his word while Martha did the work. So the beloved gets the word, the bitter gets the work.

Mary represents ‘The beloved’ who find their identity in the word, Martha represents ‘the bitter’ find their identity in their work. As children of God we need to ensure that our identity is in Christ and not in serving Christ. In this story it may seem that Martha was performing a noble task in serving Christ, but Jesus makes it clear that Mary had it the right way around. Our service must flow from our identity, our identity cannot flow from our service. We should not get identity from what we do.

So we need to have our identity in his word before we ever do his work.

But how do we establish our identity in his word? How do we establish our identity in Righteousness?

Through faith.

This may sound strange to you if you have only related faith to miraculous works and miracles but then I need to remind you that the greatest miracle of all is salvation and new birth. There is ‘saving faith’ and there is ‘miraculous faith’ and Jesus supplies us with both. He gives us the faith to believe in our new identity in Christ, that all our sins have been forgiven and that we have a new identity in righteousness and he also gives us faith to do the works which flow from our new identity. I believe it is this saving faith which establishes us in our identity which is spoken about in the mustard seed of Mat 17:14 -

 

Mat 17:14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon,  and it  came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.  19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

 

Now in this story we see that this boy was possessed by a demon and so was not a normal healing of a sickness of which the disciples had done many. So the disciples had faith to heal but in this instance they lacked a certain faith. What was the faith that they lacked? If you read the stories of different healings you will find that there is a difference in dealing with sickness and dealing with deliverance. In healing you can get by with knowing who Jesus is and what he has done on the cross, with deliverance you have to know who you are and who Christ has made you through the cross.

You can’t get away with knowing Christ, you have to know who you are in Christ – you have to be established in your identity. Demons are not intimidated by what you say they are intimidated by who you are. They are intimidated by identity. The disciples had spent much time with Jesus and were becoming very clear on who Jesus was, but were not that clear on who they were. In this instance the disciples never had a problem with miraculous faith they had a problem with saving faith, they never had a problem with what they could do, they had a problem with who they were. It was about identity.

Contrast this with Acts 19:10 – 16 which is after the cross and after the disciples are established in their identity.

 

Acts 19:11 “God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, 12 so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 But some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 (Now seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.) 15 But the evil spirit replied to them, “I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who was possessed by the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them all into submission. He prevailed against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.”

Satan will never be intimidated by what you can do if he is not intimidated by who you are. As soon as Eve was made in the image of God Satan set out to attack her identity. As soon as Jesus had his identity affirmed by God the devil follows him into the dessert to tempt him - because the devil is intimidated by identity. Satan tempts Jesus by saying “if you are the Son of God..”. Satan immediately goes to tempt Jesus not because of anything he has done, but because of who he is.

As soon as you become a Christian Satan will attack your identity. So you call yourself a Christian but you did this?…but you did that?… be aware that the devil is intimidated by identity and be secure in your identity.

And so in this story the faith the disciples were lacking was faith in their identity, in who they were as opposed to what they did. So Jesus speaks to this lack of faith by using the example of the mustard seed.

Jesus says that if you have faith like a seed of mustard you will say to this mountain, ‘move and it will move’.

So what is faith like a mustard seed? The mustard is a very small seed, 1-2mm, and can grow into a large bush, possible 5m x 5m. But what is the faith of the mustard seed. What does the mustard seed believe? Does it look at the mustard tree and say ‘all of that can’t be in me’. No. the mustard seed believes it is a mustard tree. The mustard seed has faith in what it is. The mustard seed has identity and its identity determines what it will become.

Our identity is determined by the seed of God’s word in us. We need to believe that we are all that God’s word says we are. When we have faith in who we are, in our identity in Righteousness, then we can speak to the mountain of our unrighteousness and cast it into the sea.  

     Micah 7:18 ​​​​​​​There is no other God like you!
       You forgive sin
       and pardon the rebellion
       of those who remain among your people.
       You do not remain angry forever,
       but delight in showing loyal love.
     19 ​​​​​​​You will once again have mercy on us;
       you will conquer our evil deeds;
       you will hurl our sins into the depths of the sea.

 

So what is our identity in Righteousness?

Rom 9:25 As he also says in Hosea:

       “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’”

We are the beloved, loved for who we are apart from anything we have done or ever will do.

 

Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! – 6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

We have been raised out of our condition in this world and seated in our position in Christ.

 

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

In our position in Christ we have lavished with every spiritual blessing.

                                                                 

1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:

We receive our new identity as sons of God. We are now children of the most high God.

                                 

2 Corinth 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

 

Our identity is now in his Righteousness.