I am so grateful I have not been left to my own wisdom to understand who I am and who we are as human beings. What conflicting ideas exist among us! Thankfully, God’s Word makes sense of what would otherwise be senseless and random….the Word is robust enough to give clarity amidst the complexity.
I recently completed a class on the doctrine of man (also referred to as “human personality” or anthropology). The aim of the class was to answer the question, “Who am I or who are we?” We went to Scripture for answers and structured our discussion using the biblical categories of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Glorification. I cannot tell you how encouraged, humbled and challenged I was by this class. The material was not entirely new to me but putting it all together utilizing the narrative of Scripture was very helpful. While taking this class, the need for Christians to have a clear understanding of what it means to be human was made even more evident as the news of Bruce Jenner’s sex change and Planned Parenthood’s atrocities came to light. What confusion exists in our hearts regarding who we are. What clarity~albeit complex~ the Word of God brings to this question!
The following is a biblical, personal and practical response to the question: Who am I?
I am created by the Triune God in his image- wondrously and fearfully made. I am unique and complex. As an image bearer of God, I am endowed with reason, creativity, with desire to love and be loved. I know right from wrong because His law is written upon my heart. I am made to worship Him. I look with wonder at His creation and am amazed I am called to be vice-regent over creation. I am created female and am blessed to be a wife and a mother~a helper and a nurturer.
I am fallen. I am sinner by nature (in Adam) and I am a sinner by my own actions. Sin affects all of me- my thinking, my actions, my affections, my words, my body. I lack wisdom and self-control. Indeed, though living, I am dead. I suppress the truth and easily fall for the lies dispensed by my own flesh, the world, and the devil. Too often I forget I live before the face of God and try to “fool” him by my false piety- how irrational! I am self-referential and long for autonomy. Rather than being the image bearer I was created to be, I prefer to be an image maker~ I want to fashion a god of my own making and inwardly rail against the call to worship to the one true God. I do not love well- my love is often mixed with self-interest. I am overly concerned about my reputation and long for the approval of others.
I am ashamed due both to my own sin and the sin perpetrated against me. I need covering for my shame- so I run for cover in all the wrong places, especially by pointing out the sin of others or hiding in fear. I need forgiveness for my guilt- for the real guilt of transgressing the law of God. My allegiance to God is tested and I am often found wanting. I experience suffering because this world is broken and life is hard and at times dissatisfying. All in all, I need radical rescue. I don’t just need help, I need to be given a new heart.
I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! I am a saint (in Christ, the second Adam) and now have a heart of flesh and not of stone. I am alive. In God’s incomprehensible mercy, my guilt has been completely wiped away and Christ’s righteousness has been credited to me. I am being remade into a true human~ after the pattern of Christ- the true man, the true Imago Dei. I am forgiven and adopted into the family of God. I belong to Him- I am His and He is mine, and I marvel that I have been since before the foundation of the world. I am in union with the resurrected Christ and my identity is inextricably rooted in His. My “good” record is of no use, his perfect record is all I need, is all there is! I belong to a community of faith- a royal priesthood together marching (often stumbling) toward the Celestial City. I realize that I cannot grow or thrive apart from this community.
I am learning to love God’s law and its boundaries, in fact, each day I delight more, albeit ever so slightly, in his commandments. I am learning to trust all that my God commands is good and that He is not withholding any good thing from me. I am empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to obey more each day. I am growing in wisdom, my thinking is being renewed day by day as the Holy Spirit applies the Word to my heart. I am learning to love sacrificially, to die to my own interests and seek after the interest of others. I am growing in patience and humility, acknowledging people and circumstances are often complex. More than ever, I recognize how desperately I need God’s intervention to do any good thing. My speech is being transformed~I long to build and not tear down, to speak truth in love. Though I fail way too often and progress is painfully slow, I now seek to do good rather than evil. I long to bring glory to God in all circumstances. Enmity has turned into PEACE. Desperation has turned into HOPE. Death has turned in to LIFE. Sadness has turned into JOY. And, I am so grateful! Despite the glorious “already” of my salvation, I long for the “not yet.” I long to be perfected in Christ. I long for my brothers and sisters to be perfected in Christ. I long for sin and suffering to cease. I long for the day creation will be give birth and cease its groaning.
A day is coming in which I will be face to face with my Savior, the lover of my soul. I will be given a perfected body like the body of Christ. Faith will turn into sight, doubt will vanish, tears will be wiped away, worry, fear and suffering will be a thing of the past. I will see and think with complete clarity. I will be sinless, able to worship Him completely devoid of my selfishness and distractions. I will live with brothers and sisters who also are sinless. We will love God and each other perfectly. Completely conformed to Christ, we will reflect the image of God just as we were created to do. I will be a true human. We will be a true humanity. We will finally be home and at rest. We will be glorified! O glorious day! Come quickly Lord Jesus!
I am so grateful I have not been left to my own wisdom to understand who I am and who we are as human beings. What conflicting ideas exist among us! Thankfully, God’s Word makes sense of what would otherwise be senseless and random. This is not to say that human beings are simple to understand. There is great complexity in humanity and this is so incredibly humbling. Pat answers and cliches to the real issues of life will not do. But, praise be to God, the Word is robust enough to give clarity amidst the complexity. Indeed, the Word captures all of humanity perfectly. Any failure to do so comes not from the Word but from our inability to use it wisely, to believe what it says, and to trust in the One who gave it. May the Lord grant us grace and wisdom to do otherwise!
Have you given much thought to who you are? As the Lord leads and enables, I encourage you to take time to reflect on the redemptive narrative of Scripture and allow it to inform your answer to this most profound of questions.
CB Campano is a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, Fla., where she serves as its Congregational Care Coordinator. This article first appeared on her blog and is used with permission.