Identity Crisis

Rory Mosley

092 Identity Crisis

Galatians 2:20

October 24, 2021

D-Now

As I’m sure you are all aware, entire theme for this Disciple Now weekend

Has been “Identity Crisis”

The concepts of identity have escalated in recent years

As we have heard the discussions of the world

Regarding people’s supposed identity.

We hear people say, “I Identify as…”

And so recently it has come to our attention that

Our world is having an identity crisis.

But as we have discussed with your kids this weekend,

THIS IDENTITY CRISIS DIDN’T JUST BEGIN.

This identity crisis started at the very beginning.

· God created man in perfection.

· God created man in glory.

· Man was created to be the image bearer of God.

Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

It was the purpose of Adam to represent God to all of creation.

· Adam was given authority.

· Adam named the animals.

· Adam became a living soul.

· God spoke to Adam face to face.

· Luke’s gospel refers to Adam as “the son of God”

And it wasn’t just man, God said the same about woman.

She also was created in the image of God.

Woman also was created to be the image bearer of God.

That is true human identity.

Humans were created to bear the image of God to all creation.

But the fall happened and this image became distorted;

This image became marred.

Man who was created to bear the image of God corrupted

As that image man fell into sin.

Man is still created in the image of God

But without fail man presents a distorted and fallen image.

We likened it to a corrupted painting.

There once was a beautiful painting made which was meant to describe the very essence of God.

· It was a painting of man; a painting of Adam.

· But the picture got distorted and marred.

· It’s like a Picasso painting, it’s all distorted.

And so not only was the picture distorted,

BUT NO ONE KNEW HOW TO FIX IT BECAUSE NOW

Because no one knew what it was originally supposed to look like.

And so man spent years in darkness and confusion.

Humanity developed and “Identity Crisis”.

We no longer knew what man was supposed to look like.

And because man was the imager bearer of God

We also lost an accurate picture of what God was.

And really all that identity confusion you see today

Is just a representation of the fall

And the confusion that started in the garden.

Man lost his true identity of what it actually meant to be human.

Man lost his concept of who God was because the image was distorted.

But then something remarkable happened:

John 1:14-18 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

Christ came to restore the image.

Christ came to restore the painting.

He became a restored portrait of what it meant to be human.

And Jesus was again the true image bearer of God.

Jesus came to restore what Adam corrupted.

Jesus is the first time humanity ever saw her true identity.

Jesus is the first time we ever saw what it truly meant to be human.

· Passionate and yet meek

· Holy and yet merciful

· Powerful and yet humble

· Zealous and yet kind

· Friend of sinners and yet uncorrupted by sin

Jesus was the first picture of the true human identity since Adam.

But Jesus was also FAR MORE than just an EXAMPLE of humanity.

Jesus also became our means

Of becoming once again accurate imager bearers of God.

As one scholar put it, Jesus “RE-HUMANIZES” us.

AS STEPHEN TAUGHT US:

· Through Christ, God “bestowed” (gifted) His love to us.

· “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

· And Christ restored us to the status as “children of God”

Through His atoning work on the cross,

Jesus causes His followers to be “born again” as a “new creation”

So that we might once again bear the image of the heavenly.

1 Corinthians 15:49 “Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Colossians 3:9-10 “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”

And so we understand that to live as a Christian

Is to live as the human God created you to be.

It is to be the child of God you were intended to be.

To be born again as a new creation.

To be conformed into the image of Christ.

To walk according to the fruit of the Spirit.

To know the love of the Father.

To enjoy the peace and love of a restored relationship.

This is what it means to be Christian.

AND INCIDENTALLY, THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT PAUL DESCRIBED

In his famous statement in Galatians 2

Which has become our theme verse for the weekend.

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

What you see in that verse is again the very essence of Christianity.

What you see in that verse is Paul describing his true identity.

Paul who are you?

· “I have been crucified with Christ”

· “Christ lives in me”

· “I live by faith in the Son of God”

This is his identity.

Indeed, this is meant to be the identity of every believer in Christ.

And so let’s discuss that briefly.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”?

It is the concept known as “IDENTIFICATION”

(you see “identity” in this)

Romans 6:3-4 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:6 “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”

At the INCARNATION, what was Jesus doing?

He was identifying with humanity.

In the GARDEN, when He felt the condemnation of God and even prayed that this cup might pass from Him; what was happening?

He was identifying with sinful humanity.

On the CROSS He bore and felt the very wrath and condemnation of God; what was happening?

Jesus was identifying with sinners.

He died

He was buried

And He was raised from the dead

Now, the call of Christianity is that we are to be “in Him”

We by faith are to identify with Christ.

In some strange and even miraculous way,

When a person places their faith in Christ

God identifies them with Christ.

We are said to be in Christ.

He is said to be in us.

He bears the wrath and judgment for the life we lived.

We bear the grace and good-pleasure for the life that He lived.

We are identified with Him.

And this is what Paul is referring to when he says:

“I have been crucified with Christ.”

Paul was NOT physically on the cross next to Him.

But rather, by faith Paul was in Christ.

· So through identification Paul died in Christ.

· And through identification Paul was buried in Christ.

· And through identification Paul was raised in Christ to a new life.

And if you are a Christian this is your reality.

· You are one who has also died with Christ.

· You denied yourself, you took up your cross, and you followed Jesus.

· You said “good-bye” to your former manner of life.

· You let go of all your former goals and ambitions.

As Paul said in Philippians 3

Philippians 3:7-8 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,”

And this is the very thing Paul is announcing here again.

· My life is not my own.

· I am not who I was.

· My life ended when I came to faith in Christ.

· My life now is united with Christ.

· I am His!

And it’s not just that I am in Christ.

Paul said, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;”

This is the FLIP SIDE to the union and the identity.

After a believer dies to self and is united with Christ,

The believer then receives of Christ’s Spirit

Who indwells the believer and gives them new life in Christ.

(the Spirit begins to restore the original painting in their life)

Romans 8:10-11 “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

The believer is even commanded to no longer walk like the old man,

But now to walk like the new man that Christ is making him.

Ephesians 4:17-24 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

SO THE SIMPLE POINT IS THAT

Now since I died with Christ and now since Christ lives in me.

· No longer do I live by the flesh.

· No longer do I live by my old fallen identity.

· Now I strive to live like Christ.

Which is also what Paul said:

“and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

That is Christianity 101

· That is Christian Identity

· It is meant to be the human identity

That is the SOLUTION to the world’s identity crisis.

The true identity crisis of the world IS NOT

Trying figure out if they identify as male or female,

That is just one small aspect.

The true identity crisis of the world IS that

They were created to be like Christ,

But they are still living in the flesh.

And so the world seeks to find their identity in all sorts of meaningless things that totally miss the point.

BUT LISTEN, THE CHURCH BEARS PART OF THE BLAME IN THIS.

When the church still tries to find her identity in the things of the world

We once again display a distorted picture to the world.

If we’re confused about who we are,

How could we ever expect the world to know?

We were created to be lights in the midst of darkness.

We were created to be salt in a tasteless world.

We were created to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

This is the very essence of Christian identity.

(if we lose this idea, we are failing in our calling as image bearers of God)

NOW LET ME SHOW YOU PAUL’S MOTIVE FOR THIS TEXT

We’re going to back up a little in the chapter

Because I want to show you a man who was a Christian,

But who was having an identity crisis.

That man is named Peter.

Just a brief background to the story.

· Paul had been going all over the Gentile regions of Asia preaching the gospel and Gentiles were being saved left and right.

· But this bothered many of the Jewish Christians because these Gentiles were uncircumcised.

(If you don’t know what circumcision is, ask your parents when you get home,

But just know that it was the official sign of Judaism)

· So it wasn’t long before these Jews started saying that if Gentiles wanted to be saved then they needed to become circumcised.

Acts 15:1 “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

What followed was the first ever church council.

Paul and Barnabas were summoned to Jerusalem

To stand before Peter and James and the others

AND THE GOAL WAS TO ANSWER THIS VERY QUESTION.

Do you have to be circumcised to be saved?

Do you have to come under the Jewish Law to be saved?

Well, for time sake I’ll tell you that the answer that was reached was

“NO, YOU DO NOT.”

And during the council

Peter actually had perhaps the most compelling argument.

Acts 15:7-11 “After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

Peter was crystal clear.

· Clearly Gentiles are saved because God has given them the Holy Spirit.

· The Law didn’t save us, why would you throw it on them.

· We believe we are all saved by grace, not works.

That was Peter’s final statement and the church agreed.

Following this event Peter traveled to the Gentile church headquarters.

That was at a place called “Antioch”

And Peter is likely feeling pretty good about himself.

· The church has just reached a milestone decision that salvation is by grace

alone.

· The church has just said there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

· The church has just said that Gentiles are also saved by Jesus.

And so Peter went to Antioch to fellowship with some Gentiles.

But something happened while he was there.

Peter fell into an “Identity Crisis”.

READ GALATIANS 2:11-14

· Peter was happily eating with Gentiles

· Then some men who at least said they were from James walked in.

· These men were the Judaizers.

· They claimed Christianity but were still zealous for Judaism and the Law.

· These Judaizers would have never eaten with unclean Gentiles.

And we read that Peter “began to withdraw and hold himself aloof.”

The indication there is that it was NOT an abrupt and immediate split.

Peter didn’t just jump right up and run away

Like if he was caught actually doing something sinful.

· No, Peter began to gradually pull away.

· He started skipping meetings…

· He quit saying high at the market place…

He slowly started segregating himself

According to those old discriminatory lines.

And Peter’s leadership again rubbed off on the other Jews around him.

Paul said: “The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.”

It was a full blown “Identity Crisis”.

And Paul said, (11) “I opposed him to his face”

Look at what Paul said:

(14) “But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

IT MUST BE NOTED that Paul’s concern was that Peter was “not straightforward about the truth of the gospel”

Peter’s actions were undermining the gospel.

· Was a man saved by grace or not?

· Were works like circumcision necessary or not?

· Did Jesus die for Gentiles or not?

Peter’s actions put all those questions back on the table.

So Paul confronts Peter and here he has him over a barrell.

He says:

“If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

You see Jesus had declared all foods clean…

Jesus had liberated them from a misunderstanding of the Sabbath…

· Peter had eaten unclean food.

· Peter had worshiped on the Lord’s Day; Sunday.

· Peter had lived like a Gentile in a sense.

So Paul asks him about it.

The question is this:

PETER, ARE YOU SAVED BY BEING JEWISH?

· If Peter says “YES” then Paul asks him why he has been acting like a Gentile.

· If Peter says “NO” then Paul asks him why he has pulled away from the

Gentiles.

What happened?

Peter had an identity crisis.

· In a moment of weakness…

· In a moment of peer pressure…

· In a moment of bad judgment…

Peter started acting again like the old Peter

And forsook who Christ was creating him to be.

It was a moment of backsliddenness.

It was a moment of identity confusion.

Now, THERE IS MUCH MORE there which Paul said about the ramifications of this decision which we DO NOT HAVE TIME to cover.

BUT WHAT I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND

Here at the end of this weekend is this.

There are times when even believers have an identity crisis.

There are times when even believers seem to forget who they are.

Even believers can be sucked into the mindsets and confusion

And prejudices and meaningless activities of the world.

BUT YOU ALSO NEED TO KNOW

IT IS NOT OK

When Peter did it, Paul confronted him.

But look, it WASN’T just that a few Gentiles got their feelings hurt.

The problem was that through his identity crisis

PETER WAS DISTORTING THE GOSPEL.

Peter was doing what Adam did.

· Peter was giving a corrupted picture of Christianity to the world.

· Peter was giving a marred picture of Jesus to the world.

And that is why Paul confronted him.

AND THAT IS WHY ultimately

Paul reminded Peter of what it means to be a Christian.

And so THIS MORNING

I want to kind of thrown down the gauntlet a little bit here again.

And I’m no so much speaking to those of you

Who have never confessed Jesus as your Lord.

(Certainly if that is you, you must do that

For He is the only way to be saved and to be restored to a true identity)

But this morning I want to talk to those of you who claim to be a Christian.

And I want to ask you:

WHO ARE YOU?

What is your identity?

Is it in Christ or is it in something else?

And then I would ask you:

WHO DOES THE WORLD SEE?

Peter was a Christian but on that day all the world could see was a Jew.

And that was unacceptable.

And so let me be REAL FRANK with you this morning.

I get that in this world

We all fill different secular roles and occupations and hobbies.

And those aren’t a bad thing.

· It’s not wrong to be an athlete…

· It’s not wrong to be academic…

· It’s not wrong to be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher…

· It’s not wrong to be a Jew…

BUT IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST

NONE OF THOSE THINGS CAN BE YOUR IDENTITY.

Most in here will agree that our world is spiraling into chaos.

· There is division and confusion everywhere.

· No one trusts anyone else.

· There is fear of what tomorrow holds.

· It’s hard to know who is telling you the truth.

So let me be clear to those of you who are saved.

· The world doesn’t need any more athletes.

· The world doesn’t need any more scholars.

· The world doesn’t need any more doctors or lawyers or teachers.

I’m NOT SAYING there is not a place for all those roles

And I’m NOT SAYING quit your job or your hobby.

What I am saying.

THE WORLD NEEDS CHRISTIANS

The world needs to see people who have been crucified with Christ.

The world needs to see people whom Christ lives in them.

The world needs to see people who live by faith.

The world needs people who have been restored

To true image bearers of God through the redemption of Christ Jesus.

The world needs people who proclaim and live the gospel.

· People who are filled with the Spirit.

· People who show “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

And so my call is to you who are Christians

TO PUT AN END TO THE IDENTITY CRISIS.

It’s time to get real about who you are.

It is time to identify as the redeemed.

It is time to identify as Christian.

Leave all those other minor and insignificant titles behind.

Make Christ a priority.

Let Christ be your life.

Let Christ be what others see.

Paul said:

And then Paul tells us to discover that same identity.

Philippians 3:17-21 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;”

This morning I am asking those of you who are Christians

To put an end to the identify confusion and the identity crisis.

It’s bad enough when a lost man or woman

Demonstrates some sort of identity crises.

We get angry at a lost man who is showing an identity crisis.

We get angry at a lost woman who is showing an identity crisis.

WHY WOULD WE EXPECT THEM

TO DEMONSTRATE A TRUE PICTURE OF IDENTITY?

That is the job of the Christian!

We are the ones who have been redeemed.

We are the ones who are being restored.

We are the new creation.