|
The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies |
Who Do You Think You Are?
Unless otherwise denoted, all Scripture references are to
the
New International Version (NIV; British
text)
The current fascination in the media with
personal identity pinpoints the general unsettled feeling of many in today’s
world. Fractured families resulting from promiscuous lifestyles, shifting
populations, ethnic strife and emigration, and many more features of the present
time, tend to strike at the very roots of personal worth and confidence,
unsettling many, and causing them to wonder who they are.
Lacking sufficient guidance in the development
of personal potential, the young may seek attention by outrageous behaviour.
They aspire to be celebrities, with no particular achievements to offer. In
later life a broken marriage or a work redundancy may trigger a serious
emotional crisis and loss of personal confidence.
This trend has been termed an identity crisis. Erik Erikson,
the psychologist who coined the term, believes that the identity crisis
is the most important conflict human beings encounter when they go through eight
developmental stages in life.
The identity is “a subjective sense
as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired
with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image. As a
quality of unself-conscious living, this can be gloriously obvious in a young
person who has found himself as he has found his communality. In him we see
emerge a unique unification of what is irreversibly given — that is, body type
and temperament, giftedness and vulnerability, infantile models and acquired
ideals — with the open choices provided in available roles, occupational
possibilities, values offered, mentors met, friendships made, and first sexual
encounters.” (Erikson, 1970, in Life history and the historical
moment.)
What is
Identity?
“The distinct and
recognizable nature of an individual, which results from a unique combination of
characteristics and qualities. In philosophy,
identity is the sameness of a person, which may continue in spite of changes in
bodily appearance, personality, intellectual abilities, memory, and so on.”
(
We
Are All Unique Individuals
Aside from the
psychological consideration of one’s particular role in society, identity
authentication is important in the modern world, for security reasons. We have
PIN numbers and passwords exclusive to our own financial transactions, but these
artificial attributes are open to misuse, and one’s identity can be
impersonated by another using stolen data. While there may be striking
physical resemblances, none of us has any exact ‘double’. A mere identity card
is a fallible means of identification, but there are God-given passwords:
• No two persons
have fingerprints exactly
alike.
• The pattern on the iris is also unique.
• Facial features
and expression identify us reliably and a photograph immediately calls to
mind the person.
• Voice
is an essential part of our identity. One word may be enough to trigger
recognition. Even the recorded voices of those long dead can provide a permanent
record of their individuality.
• The genetic DNA pattern is unique to an
individual and can identify that person and his or her
offspring.
David
marvelled that nothing was
hidden from the Creator:
“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You
discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. . . .
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I
praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was
made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in
your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139: 1-3,
13-16).
Jesus’ assurance to
the disciples that “even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered” may well indicate not only the Father’s care for our every need, but
also His intimate knowledge of our being (Matthew 10:
30).
And God does not forget! We are written in
His book of life, and the promise of a resurrection for all in Christ’s coming
Kingdom presupposes that He who originally created man is fully able to
recreate each individual in a new body, the unique identity restored and the
personal character qualities reinstated, so that all will know themselves, know
one another, and be aware of their former
existence.
Character
Personal character
is undoubtedly the most important
feature of one’s identity. Even Pilate, face to face with Jesus, exclaimed
involuntarily “Ecce homo!” –
“Behold the man!” – not only a Jew above all other Jews, but a man above all
other men. It was not His physical appearance, but His nobility of character
that so impressed the Roman Governor (John 19: 5, King James Version). In the exceptional
circumstances of our Lord’s resurrection and His stay on earth until the
Ascension, His physical appearance evidently bore no resemblance to that of the
Jesus they had known before. It was His personality, His character, that revealed His
identity. The body of Christ had been laid down in death for the world’s sins,
and could never be recovered to life. The Christ that the disciples saw
afterwards was an earthly, human representation of their Lord in His Divine
being.
God knows us, also,
by our cultivated characters. Mercifully, He does not expect perfection in those
handicapped by inherited sin – every one of us. He heartily approves our efforts
to overcome it, and looks on our intentions, rather than on our achievements.
And we know that our unwilling faults and weaknesses are covered by the blood of
Christ, whose
righteousness is imputed to us.
Our character and
personality do not change during a night of sleep. Neither when awakened from
the sleep of death shall we discover in ourselves any change of character, for
better or for worse. Despite our best efforts in this life, we shall fall short
of the Divine standard, but the Judgment Day then in progress will be a time of
instruction, correction, and testing. And no longer under sentence of death or
hindered by inherited weakness, we shall all have a full, fair opportunity to
eradicate from our characters the adverse effects of sin, which have afflicted
even the noblest. The Apostle Paul’s despairing cry, “What a wretched man I
am!” has found an echo in the hearts of most who have sought in this life to
rise above the power of sin (Romans 7:
24).
As we begin the
present life with a blank page, and write our biography with each passing year,
we see progressive development in one another, especially if we have yielded
to the grace of God and have been pupils in the
All character crises resolved, personal
confidence restored, their places in society understood and valued, those former captives of sin and death will stand
erect, upright, once more in the image and likeness of the Creator. And seeing
the resurrection work complete, man crowned again with glory
and
honour, having dominion over God’s earthly creation (Psalm 8: 4-6), the heavenly hosts may
well exclaim: “Ecce homo!” –
“Behold the man!”
So – Who Do You Think You Are?
God knows. We too
shall know, and be eternally thankful.
Copyright September 2008, UKBibleStudents.co.uk. May be reproduced only with permission.