Do I Know Who I Am?

When you think of who you are as a person, what comes to mind?

For most of us it might be how we would describe ourselves to others…funny, friendly, follower of Christ, work in campus ministry, enjoy sports, husband to an incredible wife, son of godly parents, athletic, intelligent…the list could go on. It is usually the things we do, our personality traits, who we are in relationship to others.

Often times (at least for me), what comes to mind, how we really see ourselves, is through the lens of our weaknesses and failures…in our sin. We hear the “tapes”, as a friend put it, that run through our heads and say things like, “You’re just not reliable” or “People think you work hard, but the real you is lazy” or “You’re not a good enough parent”. It could be dozens of things.

The hard thing about any of Satan’s lies, which is what they are, is that there is an element of truth. I really can be lazy. I do let people down. I won’t be a perfect parent or son or ____. I am usually not very organized. I think of myself above others most of the time. I don’t love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Those things are all true.

But they are not who I am.

Possibly the most amazing truth in Scripture is that Christ’s life is now my own. My identity is wrapped up in Him. I have been joined to Christ and God now sees me through Him. That is who I am.

Paul says it like this in Colossians 3:
³For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
⁴When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (NASB)

THIS is the real me. The real us. Our greatest reality is not what we see or experience in our earthly existence, but what Christ has purchased for us, who He has made us to be. We may be walking around in bodies of flesh, but the truth is we have already died. Our life is not here, it is with Christ, who is in heaven, at the right hand of God.

I love how it is put in The Message Version:
^3-4Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

This means, that in a very real sense, in fact, the MOST real sense, I have never seen the real me. Isn’t that mind-boggling and incredible? The real me is the glorious me, the one hidden with Christ in God. The real me is yet to be revealed. Just as John says in 1 John 3 – “…what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him…” That revealed me will be like Christ! THAT is who I am. THAT is my reality.

That is why Paul urges us in verses 1 and 2 to “set our minds on things above”. Focus on what is real, not on what is no longer real. This is what it means, what it looks like to follow Christ. We look to His life, His righteousness, our eternal life with and in Him…and live out of that reality, that perspective.

Will we fail? Yes. Still struggle with sin and our flesh? Yes.

But those things do not change our reality, our identity. For we are hidden with Christ in God. And that real me will be revealed when Jesus comes again. I can’t wait to see who I am!