Encountering Jesus Through the Scripture, Pt. 4
Understanding Who You Are
Understanding who you are in Christ and what God says about you in the Scriptures is essential. Unfortunately, there are so many people today posturing themselves as self-important people. We hide behind our masks and pretend that we have it all together. People do not know who they are, and many do not understand what God says about them. So, what does the Bible say about our identity and our purpose? According to the Old Testament, every single human being that has ever or will ever exist is an image-bearer of the Creator-God. Concerning the question of “who are
you?”, the Scriptures make it incredibly clear at the outset–they are imago Dei, the image of God. What does this mean? Before the first humans had anything to offer, God blessed them. The Bible declares that humanity was
created in His image (Gen. 1:26-27). In the next breath, God gave them meaningful work to do–they were given purpose. At this point, they were blessable image-bearing covenant partners. As the story continues, Adam and Eve are given a choice to follow God’s voice or their own desires, and after being tempted by the serpent, who was the devil (Rev. 12:9), they choose another voice over God’s. This sinful choice of listening to the voice of the enemy resulted in their separation from God and sin being multiplied into the world.
As the New Testament opens up and Jesus enters the scene in the Gospel of Mark, the Scripture wastes no time in declaring the identity of Jesus. “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased’” (Mk. 1:10-11). God affirms the Genesis declaration but in a different way. Here, the “image of God” becomes agapētos–beloved. The scene is as if a new creation is beginning again, and the second Adam is here to make things right (Rom. 5). So, why is the Father pleased with the Son? The Scriptures show that Jesus’ baptism serves as the inauguration of his ministry, and up to this point, Jesus has done very little. Yet, the title of “beloved” is given to him before he preaches, before he does any miracles, and even before he is tempted in the desert, very similar to the story in Genesis 1. God affirms the identity of Jesus as “beloved,” not because he has done so much, but because this was the original intent of the human condition– imago Dei. The same choice will come, to follow another voice other than the voice of his Father (see Mk. 1:12; Matt. 4:1-11). But this time, the Son will overcome–paving a new way forward of righteous living without sin. Through Jesus, God is bringing about a new creation–he is restarting a new humanity.
We are loved because we are made in the image of God. Identity is not something that is achieved; it is something that is received. Today, there is so much pressure to reduce identity to something less than the image of God. This mystery of being deeply loved by the Father, who came in the flesh to show us what it means to be truly human, is a truth that is beyond compare. You are not loved because you do lovable things. The Scripture declares that you are loved, not because of your lovable behavior, just because God chose you. We are loved before we were anything; “loved” was the very first attribute of our being. This is what the Bible means when it says, “God first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Before we existed, God’s love motivated Him to create us; before we did anything, He already loved us. Now, God loved us so much that he did something about it–sending his Son Jesus to redeem us and restore us back to our original design.
We are loved before we were anything; “loved” was the very first attribute of our being.
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