My True Identity

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

We live in a culture that seems to be obsessed with “finding my identity”. And there is no shortage of people who will give you advice on how to do that. This week I ran across a post from a licensed marriage and family therapist that offered this advice:

Finding one’s true identity is a deeply personal and introspective journey that can take time and self-reflection. Here are seven steps you can take to explore and discover your true identity:

Self-reflection

Explore your interests

Embrace your uniqueness

Seek self-awareness

Seek new perspectives

Challenge societal expectations

Practice self-acceptance and self-love

As you look at that list, what is the one word that seems to dominate this suggested process? That’s right - self. And this particular therapist is not the only one that suggests that the way to find your identity is to focus on self.

So it’s no wonder that we live in a culture where people are told they have both the right and the ability to determine their identity. And on top of that we’re told as a culture that we have to just accept everyone’s self-determined identity no matter how ridiculous it might be.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed what I’m about to share with you. There is a group called “Safer Schools” that has an entire page on their website titled “Let’s Talk About Furries”. In case you’re not familiar - which is probably to your benefit - “furries” are people, usually children, who identify as animals and who dress and acts like the animals they identify with.

And as you would probably expect, this article, which is directed primarily to the parents of these “furries”, suggests that parents should not overreact or express any kind of judgment toward their children, but should instead ask open ended questions and engage in conversation.

Tension

Fortunately, I don’t see any “furries” here with us this morning, and I doubt that anyone here has taken this idea of identity to anywhere near that extreme. However, that doesn’t mean that all of us aren’t prone to determining our identity based on the wrong sources and criteria.

If I were to ask you today who you are, many of you might reply based on who you are in your family - “I’m a father, or a son, or a sister”. Some would probably answer based on your job - “I’m a banker, or an engineer, or a surveyor”. Some might tie your identity to where you live - “I’m an American or a Tucsonan”.

But as we’re going to see this morning, not only are those very poor ways to determine our identity, the fact is that we don’t even get to determine our own identity.

Truth

Before we read and study this morning’s passage, we need to take a moment to put it into context. There are some Bible skeptics who claim that the passage we studied last week in Genesis 1 and the first part of chapter 2 is one creation account and that today’s passage is a second, different account. And they will also claim that there are contradictions between the two accounts.

But that is not what is happening here at all. Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 describes the six days of creation and one day of rest. The passage we’ll look at today, beginning in Genesis 2:4, is a more in depth look at the sixth day of creation in which God creates man.

As we’ve discussed before this is actually a very common approach in Hebrew literature that tends to be more “circular” than “linear”. As I explained to the kids earlier, it’s kind of like the map of the entire state of Arizona - that’s Genesis 1 - and the individual more detailed maps of the cities in Arizona - that’s today’s passage. With that in mind, go ahead and follow along as I read beginning in Genesis 2:4:

Genesis 2:4–25 ESV

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Here is the main idea we’ll develop from this passage today:

God made me so He defines me

We saw last week that man was the crowing achievement of God’s creation. It was not until after God created man that He declared the creation to be “very good”.

Today’s passage helps us to understand more clearly and deeply why that is. Although there are probably a few more aspects of my God-ordained identity that we could pull from this passage, I want to take a few minutes to focus on the three I think are most significant.

MY GOD-ORDAINED IDENTITY

I am a combination of dust and divinity

As we saw last week, out of all the creation only man was made in the image of God. That means that human life is valuable and sacred because our lives are meant to, at least in some small way, display and manifest what God is like.

We see here that God created man from dust. And elsewhere in the Bible we see that one day these temporary physical bodies will return to dust. But God took that ordinary dust and formed it into something special.

The Hebrew word translated “formed” in verse 7 is the same word used for a potter who skillfully shapes a pot with his own hands. David reaffirms this idea in Psalm 139.

Psalm 139:13 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Just like the potter who takes some ordinary clay and skillfully shapes it into a beautiful and valuable pot, God took ordinary dust and formed it into something infinitely more special.

But God did something else significant in the creation of man that He didn’t do for anything else He created. He breathed the breath of life into man. The whole idea of God breathing life into Adam is personal and intimate. It was God giving of Himself in order to transform the inanimate dust into a “living creature”. Without that breath of life, man would be as dead and lifeless as dust.

It is this breathing in of life that distinguishes all the rest of creation from man and this is what makes man to be created “in the image of God”. The Hebrew word translated “living being” in verse 7 is most commonly translated “soul” in the rest of the Old Testament. It is instructive here that Adam did not merely receive a “soul” - he became one.

This idea of man being a combination of dust and divinity also has a spiritual implication. Because of sin, we are all spiritually dead and it is only when God breathes His Spirit into our lives that we can become spiritually alive.

I am a worshiper

After God formed Adam from dust and breathed life into him, He placed him in the garden. At that time Adam was neither lazy or a workaholic.

The verb translated “put” in verses 8 and 15 is a Hebrew word that is often associated with “rest” in the Bible. This is in great contrast to the burden that work will become after the fall.

But Adam was also commanded to “work” and “keep” the garden. Those two words show up together another 15 times in the first five books of the Bible and in each case they are associated with the work of the priests. They were the ones who worked in and kept the tabernacle. And the word translated “work” can also mean to serve in the sense of an act of worshiping God. So it wouldn’t be a stretch at all to say that Adam is the first priest who was created to worship God through his service.

That is the same kind of worship Paul was writing about in these familiar words:

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

While what we are doing together this morning is certainly worship, it is only one small aspect of worship. We ought to be worshiping every day by serving God through acts of service wherever He has placed us.

I am made for relationship

Throughout the creation narrative for the seven days of creation, we consistently see that God looked at His creation and declared that “It is good”. But when we get to verse 18, God says, “It is not good that man should be alone”. So God decides to make a helper fit for him.

It’s important to note that the idea that the Eve is created to be Adam’s helper does not in any way demean her or mean that she is inferior to Adam. Do you know who is frequently described as a helper in the rest of the Bible? Perhaps this verse will help you answer that question:

Psalm 124:8 ESV

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

That’s right. God is our helper and that certainly doesn’t mean He is inferior to us. He is helping His people by doing for them what they cannot do for themselves.

That is what Eve does for Adam. Adam is given the task of working and keeping the garden, of having dominion over the rest of creation and of being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. And he certainly can’t do that alone, especially the reproducing part. So he needs a fitting helper.

I really shouldn’t even have to say this, but in today’s culture that increasingly rejects the plan for relationships that God established at creation, there are some important absolutes we find here;

There are only 2 sexes - male and female. Although it is common to determine one’s sex based on physical characteristics, chromosomes or hormonal profiles, scientifically sex is determined by gametes, or reproductive cells. Females produce large ones called eggs and males produce small ones called sperm. In 99.98% of people, they are unambiguously either male or female at birth.

Therefore sex is binary - not a spectrum

There are only 2 genders - man and woman. I don’t have time this morning to go into detail about the difference between sex and gender, but what I will say is that the creation narrative in Genesis 1-2 addresses both and that in the Bible they are never out of sync.

Biblical marriage is always the union of one man to one woman for a lifetime. That is confirmed explicitly by Jesus in His earthly ministry as well as by the other New Testament writers - especially Paul.

The kind of godly relationships that God desires for us will always fit withing those biblical standards - period. I’ll speak to that more in a moment.

Application

We’ve seen this morning that...

God made me so He defines me

So what are the...

IMPLICATIONS FOR MY LIFE

I must find my identity in Christ alone

Hopefully by now this is obvious. Because God created me, He alone gets to determine my identity. And if I’ve put my faith in Jesus alone, then my identity is that I’m a child of God, saved by grace. I may have other roles, responsibilities and duties in my life that are related to my family, my job and my community. and those may change over my life. But once I put my faith in Jesus and find my true identity, that never changes - not even after my life here on earth ends.

I must build relationships that honor God

As we saw earlier, we were created for relationship. Although I didn’t really mention it earlier, that includes our relationship with God as well as our relationships with other people. And up until the point where they sinned, Adam and Eve’s relationship was completely consistent with God’s design. During that time, their relationship with God was perfect. He walked with them in the Garden. And their relationship with each other was perfect, too. No one had to write Bible verses about nagging wives or insensitive husbands.

But as we’ll see more fully next week, the fall ended all that. And every since then every relationship we have has been marred by the effects of sin. However, the more our relationships line up with the standards God established at creation, the better those relationships will be and the more God will be honored.

That means that regardless of how we might feel, we need to build relationships that are consistent with the Bible and not with our culture. Obviously we still need to love those who reject God’s standards in their relationships, but sometimes loves means that we have to gently and compassionately share the truth with them.

It also means that, although we can’t ever become isolated from the world, we need to focus most of our time and effort building relationships that honor God because they are consistent with the standards He has established.

I must value all human life

Every human being ever born on this earth is God’s image bearer. And therefore we need to value every single life - from the moment of conception until the time our life here on earth ends. Essentially that is the basis for all of the Ten Commandments that deal with our human relationships. It is why we are to honor our parents and why we are not to murder or steal or lie or commit adultery or covet what belongs to others.

Please listen very carefully to what I’m going to say next. I don’t believe it is possible to be a disciple of Jesus and believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and be pro-choice. Having said that, I do know some people, even some who have attended this church, who certainly seem to be genuine Christians, but who are pro-choice. Perhaps there are even some of you here today who would fit into that group.

It is not my job to evaluate the genuineness of anyone’s salvation. Only God can do that. But what I can say is if these people are Christians, they haven’t matured to the point in their walk with Jesus where they believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Because the Bible is very clear on this issue - there is no ambiguity. So the only way to be pro-choice is to either ignore the Scriptures or twist them to support your position.

If you hold to a pro-choice position then be assured that I am praying for you and asking the Holy Spirit to convict you of the truth that is in His Word. And if you still have some questions or would like to have a conversation about this or anything else I’d consider it a great privilege.

I don’t believe that it’s any coincidence that in a country where nearly 1 million abortions are committed each year, the United States has one of the highest murder rates in the world. When we fail to value the life of the most vulnerable - the unborn - that mindset unfortunately leads to a lack of valuing all life.

Action

God made me so He defines me

If you’re struggling today with trying to figure out your identity, then the first thing I would say is that you need to make sure that you’ve put your faith in Jesus alone. That is the only way you will ever find your true identity. If you’ve never done that, then please take that first step today. If you have some questions about what that looks like, then Ryan or I would love to talk to you more.

For those who have already done that, then I want to encourage you to take a few concrete steps based on what we’ve learned today.

First, spend some time thanking God for creating you in His image, for breathing life into you both physically and spiritually.

Second, spend some time in prayer evaluating your relationships, Ask God to reveal anything in those relationships that is inconsistent with His standards or which robs Him of His glory. Then confess and repent based on what He reveals.

Third, ask God to help you be someone who sees every single person as an image bearer who God loves and values and to treat others with the same grace and mercy with which He has treated you.

Inspiration

As we close this morning, the one thing I hope you’ll take away more than anything else is to understand just how much God loves you and how valuable you are to Him. He formed you and breathed life into you and placed you exactly where He wants you to be. That’s pretty incredible, isn’t it?