A Transformed Identity

I want to start today with a question. Who are you? If I were to walk up to you with a microphone right now and asked, “Who are you,” how would you answer that question? Maybe you will tell me about the work you do. Maybe you will tell me about where you live. Maybe you will tell me about some of the things you like or dislike. Maybe you will tell me about your hobbies. But does that adequately help me understand who you are?

Have we ever thought deeply about that question? Every human being on Earth is on a quest to discover the answer to that question. Some of us are proactive in that quest, and others are passive in that quest, but everybody is wired to pursue the answer to that question.

Who are you?

A few weeks ago, we left our story in Genesis as Jacob was leaving Laban and returning home. Jacob had been on a transformation journey of sorts. He spent his early life tricking people. He tricked his brother and his father. He moved to Haran and lived with his uncle Laban only to be duped for 20 years! Chapter 32 opens as Jacob is preparing to take one of the scariest steps in his life: face his brother. He divides his possessions and develops a strategy to try to protect his assets. The night before he is to set foot back in the land, a stranger shows up and Jacob learns something about who he is.

Genesis 32:22–32 NASB95

Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had. Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

God exists in relationship with his people through covenant. You and I have the benefit of a lot of these things happening all at once. Jacob got it in pieces over time. As part of this covenant relationship, God changes Jacob’s name, and for the first time in Scripture, the name Israel is used.

Jacob had a change in identity marked by a change in his name. While God does not change everyone’s name when they come to faith in Christ, everyone gets a transformed identity.

Last week I showed you a picture of me when I was 19 years old. It was my mug shot from the last arrest I aver had. I came to faith a year later, and the second picture was a photo of me from last year. Everyone who sees the difference understands that the 19 year old me is a stranger. They don’t recognize him. That’s because God is not interested in fixing up your life. He wants to transform it. He wants to make something entirely new.

So let’s take a look at the story of Jacob and understand what God is doing in answering the question, “Who are you?”

A transformed identity is a new identity.

“Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and men and have prevailed.” The name Jacob meant trickster or deceiver. The name Israel means “he who strives with God” or “God strives.” To strive is to struggle or fight vigorously, and this describes Israel’s relationship with God for their entire existence up to the present day. Israel has always struggled with who will be in charge: them or God. But the name changes.

We say around here that our mission is to help people find forever family through Christ-centered relationships. The center of that idea is that we are all family members. You and I have a common adoption into the family of God. You and I are his sons and daughters. This is extremely important for understanding the answer to the question, “Who are you?”

When a child is adopted, a lot of interesting things happen. One of them is that the adopted child is issued an entirely new birth certificate. The adoptive parents are listed as the legal parents of the child. The parents also have the opportunity to change the child’s name. So if the child is very young and was given one name at birth by her birth parents, the adoptive parents can give her a brand new name. If the child is older, the child may get a say in what that new name is going to be. But a new name is entirely possible. The result is that the original birth certificate is sealed and filed away from public record, and if you take that new birth certificate and place it next to a birth certificate like Christy’s, they are indistinguishable.

You have a brand new identity.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB95

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

God doesn’t want to refurbish the old you. He wants to transform you into something entirely new.

A transformed identity requires assimilation.

When I first heard the word assimilation, I thought, “What on Earth does that mean?” Some of you now might be asking the same question. Assimilation is the process by which a person adopts the traits of a dominant culture until he becomes indistinguishable from the host society. Let me show you what this looks like.

When people immigrate to the United States, there is an expectation that the one coming into this country will adopt the values and traits of the culture that makes us who we are. The immigration system is complicated and broken, but those who genuinely want to build a life here are expected to learn the history, the culture, and our laws. If you move to Spain, you will be expected to adopt Spanish culture, not try to impose American culture on them.

The concept is no different in the kingdom of God. He does not need our help deciding how to run his house. Our job is to understand God, understand his expectations, and adjust our life accordingly. The trouble is the old self, identified as the flesh in the New Testament, fights for dominance while the new self, identified as the spirit in the New Testament, fights for the same space. But the assignment is not to entertain the desires of the flesh because its desires are contrary to the desires of the spirit. You can please God, your new father, or you can please yourself. You can’t do both until what pleases you more than anything is pleasing God.

Colossians 3:1–11 NASB95

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

The overarching command in this passage is to seek the things that are above. Seek first the kingdom of God. If you are truly a Christian, then is your relationship with God not the most important thing to you? You were dead in your trespasses and sins but you have been made alive in Christ! Jesus offered you the path to be whole! But it’s not automatic. It takes work.

But before you can do anything differently, you have to think differently. Notice that we are setting our minds on things above before we consider ourselves dead to the things our thoughts will produce: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech.

Putting on the new self is dying to the old way of life and assimilating into the culture that God has established within his family. You don’t get to choose the culture of Christianity. You respond to it. The culture of the local church should be developed from the culture that God has already established.

What I mean by that is that our desire is not to create a Christian subculture within the local church, but rather express the culture of being part of God’s family as he has revealed it to us. Our church membership process includes the idea of assimilation. We expect that a church member will adopt the DNA of our church, which is a reflection of the culture God has established. Our application of the principles may change over time, but the principles themselves are timeless.

So ask yourself, are you assimilating yourself into the family of God to the degree that the gap between who you are and who Christ is, is closing day by day? If you are not regularly seeking to apply biblical principles to your life you are not assimilating. To be a Christian is to choose to live like Christ above all else.

ACTION STEP

Here’s what I want you to do this week. I want you to answer this question:

What does it mean to be a [INSERT LAST NAME]?

Whatever your last name is, what does it mean to be that? What does it mean to be a Hammonds? What does it mean to be a Dockery, Stapleton, Stroleny, Bednorz, and so on? Do you know what that is? Have you spent time thinking through that? This could take you a while, and that’s okay. Many of us take this for granted. We assume these things. But the more precisely you can answer this question, the more precisely it will produce the habits and behaviors you want to exhibit in your household.

Marci and I are working on this very thing as we think about what we want to pass down to our children. One thing it means to be a Hammonds is that above all else, we are loyal to Christ and his bride. This means that we will have to be careful about the things we say yes to in our daily schedules. It means we say no to a lot of things regarding entertainment choices. It will determine the sort of company my daughters will be allowed to keep.

How would you answer this question? How does the Spirit of God want you to answer that question?