On Identity
“Discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Evening sunset in Big Sky, MT
A friend recently told me that my husband and I remind him of the beginning scenes of Fight Club, when the main character attends various end-of-life support groups to treat his insomnia.
I admit, he is observant. Hopefully I won’t start prowling the streets provoking others to fight me. But who knows.
My favorite ‘support group’ is a Bible study that meets on Wednesday nights, led by a man named Chad, and his wife, Rebecca.
Recently we worked through the armor of God in Ephesians. For this post, I’ll focus on the sandals of peace, which represent identity in Christ.
Our discussion was set in the context of Paul’s full letter to the church in Ephesus. He warns against feelings of superiority between the Jewish and Gentile Christians by reminding them that everyone has an identity, calling, and assignment. As Christians, they are uniquely bound in a new, shared identity, which acts as an equalizer.
In general, identity is who we are, calling is our purpose, and assignment is how we carry out our identity and calling daily – usually through a job.
There are infinite ways this can play out. A common example in modern culture is a person’s identity rests in being a respected, productive member of society. Their subsequent calling is to serve others, and their assignment could be a corporate worker, doctor, schoolteacher, stay-at-home mother, or any number of veritable options.
Unfortunately, modern culture does us a disservice. Instead of teaching that our identity determines our calling and assignment – as is God’s design – it gives the false message that our assignment determines our identity.
By placing the highest emphasis on assignment – the most visible part of life – society trains us to equate our own self-worth, and the worth of others, with profession. “What do you do?” is a far more common question than “Who are you?” or “Why are you here?”
The difference seems subtle, but it can cause destruction in the lives of modern people – certainly myself – and explain why as individuals and a society we are more sick, depressed, lonely, suicidal, confused, and unsatisfied than ever before.
Attaching our identity to our current or aspiring assignment is unstable because assignment can change. If our identity is to be a respected and productive member of society, all is well when our assignment is intact as an employed worker, schoolteacher, doctor, or stay-at-home mother.
But what happens when we lose our faculties due to accident, illness, organizational restructuring, or the inevitable course of aging, and can no longer fill those roles?
Someone who is not employed or engaged in family or civic duty is often not considered productive or respected by society. If that is where their identity lies, then not only have they lost their assignment, they have lost their identity as well.
If we let our assignment determine our identity, to where will we turn when we lose our assignments?
Given enough time, we will eventually get fired, or superseded, or injured, or sick, or rejected, or aged-out, or end up in hospice care. One way or another, we will face death itself.
Then what? What is an alternative source of identity, one that is not determined by our assignment or lack thereof?
The only infallible option is to place our identity not in our current or aspiring assignment, as the world teaches, but in something outside ourself – something unchanging, and eternal.
In this sense, Christianity is the only infallible source of identity. Every Christian, regardless of ethnicity, background, and previous life – be it a rabbi or convict – is called to shed their old identity and put on a new one, the same one, in Christ alone. It is why Paul uses the concept of identity as an equalizer between Christians of different ethnic backgrounds.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a reminder that Christians get their identity not through themselves and their own notions of who they are, as modern culture teaches. Nor do Christians get their identity through their families of origin, and who their parents tell them they are, as traditional culture teaches. Christians get their identity through Christ alone, and what He did for us.
There is no other worldly or religious alternative for identity that offers what Christ offers us through his death and resurrection.
Christianity is the only religion in the world that has a God who came to earth, as a man, to willingly die for those who denounce him, which is all of us. He took our sin so we could take his righteousness (2 Cor 5:21).
When our identity comes from a God who lived an earthly life and experienced temptation, suffering, and death to save us from the eternal separation that we deserve, nothing can take it away.
We could be in a situation where we are about to be killed – the worst possible scenario – and still our identity remains. Christianity is the only one with a God who was there, in line to be executed, too.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught this through his writing, his life, and – mostly – his death. He was stripped naked and hung at a concentration camp along with five others in the spring of 1945. He was 39 years old and engaged to be married. A witness of the execution wrote:
“I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” (Bethge, Eberhard)
Can you imagine? There is a man whose identity wasn’t tied to his assignment, or changing cultural ideals, or even a God who didn’t sacrifice for him.
In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” It is a total surrender of self. It means dying to sin, self-interest, wealth, and societal reputation.
But mostly it means dying to our old source of identity – even good ones – be it daughter, brother, husband, mother, doctor, business owner, schoolteacher, or respected member or society in any capacity.
In Christ, we’re called to hate our other identities in comparison to Him. In taking on a new identity in Christ, “I live, but no longer I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20).
What’s the point? We must resist the message that your own feelings, or your family’s reputation, or your worldly assignment determines your worth. All of these are subject to the vicissitudes of time and change.
There is only one who has the authority to tell you who you are and what you’re worth, which is your Creator. And when your Creator tells you, you’re worth dying for, then “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39).
The new identity we receive in obeying the call of discipleship is the only one that comes from an unshakable source. It does not come from our own pride or guilt, nor our family members' notions of who we are, nor our society’s current opinion of the temporary profession we occupy.
Christian identity is the only identity immune to intelligence, physical capability, attractiveness, human approval, suffering, and death itself.
When we experience failure and are tempted to view ourselves as inferior to others, we can be encouraged by our new identity as a beloved son or daughter of the King.
When we experience success and are tempted to view ourselves as superior to others, we can be humbled by our new identity that is equally shared by every Christian. As Bonhoeffer says, “Judging others makes us blind… By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
Once again, Christian identity is the great equalizer. Christ’s death and resurrection are for anyone who accepts it, irrespective of race, age, position, or religious background. It completely eliminates superiority and inferiority complexes at once.
I didn’t understand Fight Club well, but I do remember it’s a movie about identity. It seems to speak to anyone who has experienced the inevitable disappointment that results from placing their identity in a horizontal object like a family name, a spouse, a career, or even worse, from within, as western culture encourages.
Getting our identity from a vertical source, in Christ’s death and resurrection, is the only infallible choice.
In becoming a Christian, we die to our old identity and receive a new one, in Christ, that can’t be taken away. It persists through job loss, sickness, aging, suffering, and death itself.
It’s the ultimate paradoxical invitation that is available to anyone: die to the old, which will die anyways, and live in the new, which can never be taken away.
At Columbus Naturopathic Medicine, we provide faith-based care to help you experience God’s design for meaning, purpose, and connection. If you are interested in working with Dr. Leah Gusching, you can learn more and schedule an appointment by clicking the link below.