I do not remember everything that I have ever heard from the pulpit, but for some reason some stuff just sticks. One statement I heard when I was visiting a church while I was in college sticks in my mind. The preacher with conviction yelled from the pulpit, “the Old Testament is about law and the New Testament is about love!” Even then, as a sophomore in college, something did not sit right within me regarding this statement, but at that moment in life I could not really put my finger on it. Throughout my life the Old Testament was always talked about in reference to “the law,” the “sacrificial system,” or the “old covenant” and how Jesus came and did away with “all of that.” Yet, I always wondered if it was that simple, or if something was being overlooked. I always asked, why is there such a difference between the Old and New Testaments?
My transition of thinking all started in seminary while sitting in an exegesis class focusing on the book of James and 1 Peter. In both books I continued to read about how the Church was a “chosen people” (1 Peter 2:4, 9). Years later it finally came together while I was doing my devotional in the book of Jeremiah.
In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 12, God says, “I said, Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God…The LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey me…’ They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors” (context is from 12:1-17).
What hit me at that moment was that once someone comes to faith in God it has been, is, and always will be about one’s identity being changed. From the time that God brought Israel out of Egypt and they worshiped him, they became “God’s people.” The identity given never had anything to do with what the people did; it was about what God did for his people. The people of Israel were “God’s people” because they where in covenant with God and worshiped him. It was only when they worshiped, followed, and served other gods that the covenant was broken and Israel was no longer God’s people.
In what has been deemed “the church age,” meaning the time post-resurrection, this reality still has not changed; we are God’s people because of what he has done. God acted and we believe and follow him. In that belief our identity changes, we become sons and daughters of God, the people of God. Just as Henri Nouwen so eloquently points out in In the Name of Jesus, just as when Christ was baptized and a voice came from heaven saying, “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” The same thing happens when a new believer comes to faith, a voice calls out from heaven, “this is my son or daughter in whom I am well pleased.” While the voice might not be audible as it was in the gospel accounts, this does not change the fact that God sees a person this way once they come to faith. Paul confesses this same reality in a different way when he states in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” The new is here is not to come, but it is here now. That is the beauty of conversion, at the point of the confession of faith people are made new, they take on a new identity.
Looking at Simon’s confession of Christ as the Christ in Matthew 16 one can see that Simon’s confession results not just a spiritual rebirth, but a full identity shift. It is after Simon states “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), that Jesus looks at him and saying, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter…” (Matthew 16:17-18a). Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter showing a change in Simon’s identity from who he was before to who he now is. In the Hebraic mindset the name held within it one’s identity. When Jesus changes Simon’s name, he changes Simon’s identity. He is no longer Simon, he is now Peter.
Now this is where reality meets the lie of dualism. In a dualistic understanding our faith, or spiritual reality, is separate from our bodily, or non-spiritual reality; yet, this is a false understanding of faith. If it is true that in conversion identity changes, it is not only the spirit that changes, but also the body, the day-to-day life, and everything that changes. Within conversion someone becomes a new person, both physically and spiritually, both outward and inward, both at church and in the routine of your day to day. As Dallas Willard points “…if we understand that the ‘inward positive reality’ and the ‘external positive manifestations’ are not two separate things, but one unified process in which those who are alive in God are caught up in their embodied, socialized totality” (The Spirit of The Disciples, Dallas Willard, pg. 78).
Becoming a follower of Christ changes everything, not only our spiritual relate to relationship with God, but our identity and everything we do, are, and will be. May you find hope that in Christ you are new, that in Christ you are a son or daughter of God, and may you live out that reality in all you do.
(Next week we will turn to discuss our consumer culture and how it fights against our identity.)
No comments:
Post a Comment