Identity

Who do you say that you are? When you're introduced or introducing someone, don't you start with externals such as work, family or the location you live? A person's identity is wrapped up in their hobbies, politics and much more. What defines you?

What matters most to you? What do you spend your time reading? Who do you find yourself listening to? What do you spend the majority of your time doing?

How is your self-esteem or self-confidence built up? How often do you let what others say about you shape how you see yourself?

Do you have a moral compass? Do you believe morals exist? If you do think that there are some things that are good and others that are bad, where did a common morality come from? How did humans get a sense of right and wrong?

Many people object to the possibility of God's existence because there is evil or suffering in the world. Often they have suffered in extreme ways and are sure that a good God would not allow things like that to happen. They decide that since evil exists, then God can't exist.

However, read what Ravi Zachararias states in the book I'm reading Jesus Among Other Gods on page 112.

"But here, Christianity provides a counterchallenge to remind them that they have not escaped the probelm of contradiction. If evil exists, then one must assume that good exists in order to know the difference. If good exists, one must assume that a moral law exists by which to measure good and evil. But if a moral law exists, must not one posit an ultimate source of moral law, or at least an objective basis for moral law? By an objective basis, I mean something that is transcendently true at all times regardless of whether I believe it or not. "

Ravi goes on to say that those who say God doesn't exists should consider how that is possible if good and evil exist. Some may say, Why can't evolution give us a moral sense? Why do we need God? So they try to argue that you don't need something to make something happen (the basis of evolution) and say that the universe just exists without a designer. So in the same way, they will say that we don't really need a moral law or a moral source and say why can't morality just be a practical reality? So, the same people who say that they want a cause for suffering and therefore God can't exists or He wouldn't allow suffering, say that they don't believe a cause for every effect - some things just exists.

"This attempt to deny God because of the presence of evil is so fraught with the illogical that one marvels at its acceptance. Not one proponent of evolutionary ethics has explained how an impersonal, amoral first cause through a nonmoral process has produced a moral basis of life, while at the same time denying any objective moral basis for good an evil. Does it not seem odd that of all the permutations and combinations that a random universe might afford we should end up with the notions of the true, the good, and the beautiful? In reality, why call anything good or evil? Why not call it orange or purple? That way we settle it as a different
preference.

The truth is that we cannot escape the existential rub by running from a moral law. Objective moral values exist only if God exists. Is it all right, for example to mutilate babies for entertainment? Every reasonable person will say no. We know that objective moral values do exists. Therefore God must exist. . . . The conclusion must be agreed upon that nothing can be intrinsically, prescriptively good unless there also exists a God who has fashioned the universe thus. But that is the very Being skeptics want to deny because of the existence of evil." [page
113]

Other explanations for good and evil exist. Some people say we're just obeying our DNA, others that we just have a virus that makes us think morality exists. If you don't believe in God, what is your explanation? An augment still might arise where someone says that if God really created us, why wouldn't he make us in such a way that we would always do good? The problem is that at that point, we become robots. When left without a choice, duty is all that is left. God has created us so that we can choose to love him and to love each other.

I do believe in the God of the Bible who sent his only son Jesus to earth in order to save us from our sins. All I have to do to be seen as righteous before God is to accept the free gift that he offers to me. There is no set of rules I must obey in order to be accepted. I didn't have to have a perfect life before Jesus accepted me. I am accepted just as I am. It is God who takes a sinner and gives them new desires. God has created you and I and has given us the Bible so that we may know Him. You can know God. God as the creator is the only one who is qualified to give you an identity.

As an engineer, when I design a new product or piece at work, it's my responsibility to give it a name. I made that new part number for a purpose. I design its individual specification. I chose the materials it is to be made from. I decide what kind of heat treating process or plating it will undergo. I never make a part just to have it. It is always made for a reason. That part I made is designed to go into one of our products. Without that part, the product may not work at all. It was made for a reason and so is special. I give the part its name, identity, and I dictate the stresses it will undergo in order to be made as I intended.

God did the same for us. He gives us our identity and uses stresses in our lives to make us who he intends us to be. He has a purpose for each of us. Often we may not see the purpose, but God does. Our identity doesn't come from what we do, but the God who created us. If you want to know who you are, read his word and find out from Him who you are. I posted this a few months ago, but am going to post what follows again as a reminder of who we are in Christ.

I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)
I am united with the Lord(1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price(1 Cor. 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt.5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ(1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil.3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God(2 Cor.5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God(Rom.8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor.1:21-22)
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28)
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship(Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil 1: 6)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child(Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
who you are!?