To step into our true identity in Jesus Christ, we have to surrender our worldly badges of identity. We must stay hidden in Christ.
Picture this: you’re at a low-key social gathering where you’ve met someone new. You have a conversation lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. Parting company, you say, “Nice to meet you.” But you leave feeling as if you didn’t really get to know her, nor she you. So often, even in the midst of a conversation, I can tell that there is a much deeper level that could be reached with the person with whom I’m talking. But all too often, we never delve into those deep places. Perhaps many of us find it easier, safer somehow to stay on the surface of life because the deeper layers feel more difficult to broach. But just below the surface lies who we really are…our true identity.
The world encourages us to stay at the surface level and find our identity in something, anything other than Christ. The world defines us by the work we do, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the things we own, and the accomplishments we achieve. These are merely the physical, material things that can be observed with the naked eye. But, as with most things, when it comes to identity, there is more than meets the eye. As believers, our identity isn’t in the flesh, but in the unseen realm where we are firmly rooted in Jesus Christ.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20, KJV
The badges…
Before I became a believer, and to be honest, even since I’ve been saved, I have found my identity in things other than Christ. Throughout my childhood, my identity was that of a social outcast, a weirdo, a poor victim, and an ambitious overachiever. I wore each of these titles like an invisible badge that informed who I was. Growing up in a highly isolated social environment, I had trouble identifying with the people who lived near my family. I could tell I was not like everyone else because my life looked so entirely different than theirs.
I would be out weeding in the garden or carrying a yolk across my shoulders with heavy buckets full of fresh cows milk from the barn. Meanwhile, I’d watch as the neighbor girls rode their shiny bikes and played on their colorful swing sets. They seemed so carefree, and their lives looked so fun and easy. Even though I was young, the stark contrasts were very apparent to me. My life felt completely foreign from their lives. So, while those “normal” little girls were earning their Brownie and Girl Scout badges, I was donning my own badges: “Weirdo” and “Outcast.”
Painful badges…
When I transitioned from home school to public school, I wore a combination of homemade clothes and secondhand castaways. That was when I began to understand that the shameful “Poor Girl” badge had been added to my wardrobe. After my dad died from a massive heart attack, I bounced around from home to home with many different custodial guardians in their “normal” suburban homes. It was then that I received two of my most painful badges: “Orphan” and “Victim.” While my classmates seemed to coast through school, I was working tirelessly to make straight A’s and assert myself as a leader in just about every extracurricular activity under the sun. So, when I graduated 4th in my high school class, along with the tassels on my cap and cords on my gown, I proudly accepted my invisible “Ambitious Overachiever” badge.
Surrendering the badges…
Sadly, all of the identity badges that I had amassed over the years seemed to serve me well in the world. They helped me win a ton of college scholarships to fund my undergraduate studies. They molded me into the model student who had met with and overcome a great deal of adversity, beating the odds and becoming a high achiever. And the pattern continued through college and graduate school. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa in college. Received Distinction and Honors in my Masters degree program.
It was as if the more badges I got, and the more achievements I made, the heavier the false identities felt. Outwardly, things were going along just fine and dandy…until the bottom dropped out. In my mid twenties, I finally hit an impasse in the form of a gigantic wall of anxiety and depression. All of the worldly identities I had constructed in my own strength–the badges that had ushered me through all those traumas and obstacles–began to rub, and prick, and tear, and hide who the Lord was really calling me to be. So, as I surrendered my life to Christ, I surrendered my badges.
Discovering my true identity…
And in doing so, I discovered my true identity. Christ. In me! And He didn’t see me as a weirdo, an outcast, or a poor victim. He invited me into His flock, and showed me that I belonged there as one of His chosen ones. Rather than seeing me as an overachiever who had to strive for perfection to survive, He accepted me with unconditional love and called me an overcomer with a testimony. I was no longer an orphan because He adopted me and called me His beloved daughter. And remarkably, none of His love and acceptance hinged on what I could do, but on who He was.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:27-28, KJV
Losing my life to find His….
When I “put on Christ,” there was no place for my old badges. My name was now written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21:27), so I had to let go of all those old names, those worn out, false identities that had defined me for so long. I had a new identity and was made new in Him. Friends, as difficult as it can feel, we have to lay down our badges. If we want to truly walk in our new nature, in the freedom that Christ offers all those who believe, we must surrender our old selves, relinquish our old ways. We have to let go of our notions of who we think we are in this world. And we must cling to our identity in Christ as if our very lives depended on it.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:25, KJV
Do not be entangled again…
As we take this walk of faith, inevitably we encounter difficult circumstances. And as challenges present themselves, the devil is right there inviting us to take up our old badges. To cope, rather than to overcome. To hide in fear, rather than to trust in the Lord to deliver us. But those old ways of operating won’t work in the kingdom of God. Those old badges only opened doors that are closed to us now. Wearing them, we can’t reach the new places of blessing where the Lord is leading us.
We mustn’t forget that we have relinquished our old nature. We have put on a new identity badge that reads: “Jesus Christ.” In so doing, we have accepted a new way, which is to walk, talk, act and think like Jesus. Let’s not return to our old identities. Let’s learn to walk in faith, hidden in Christ, and loved beyond measure.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1, KJV
What have your old badges read? Which ones do you still need to let go of to walk with the Lord? How have you relied on your new identity badge?
Manolo Chrétien
