What Exactly Is Our Christian Identity?
Good Morning Friends,
A few days ago Pope Francis gave a homily about the core characteristics of people in the faith. It was about gaining clarity as to who we are on the long journey from indistinctiveness to conviction. As a follow up, I ask the same question he asked of Catholics and maybe of Protestants as well: What Exactly Is Our Christian Identity?
Scripture: 13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.’
Matthew 5:13 (NRSV)
16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16 (NRSV)
8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (NRSV)
20But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.*
21I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.
1 John 2:20-21 (NRSV)
Message: The amazing Spirit of Truth is this… that in this unperceptive world that resists tasting and seeing God’s love, God has blessed us to be the silent work of influence, salt and the visible manifestation of God in people’s lives, light. It is our function to preserve and season life in a covenant of friendship with others, to reveal danger, dispel darkness, to show the way, to be a marker on the road. God has blessed us to flavor the world so that others might taste godliness and to bring out the God-colors in the world by bearing His light in us on the high ground…to taste boldly and see vividly. As Christians we are to be salt and light like Jesus. So let your light shine so that others might see how God works in and through you. It is a great wonder being a human and being chosen and being pitied and possessed by God. It is a great wonder how we become holy and priestly and how our identity and destiny converge. It is a great mystery how our true identity becomes more beautiful the more closely we are drawn to Jesus. But our identity, whether we like it or not, starts with all of us being sinners. Only then in the conviction of our character are we anointed. You see friends, our purpose in life as Christians is to reflect the mind and will of God….to experience and share a Jesus of salt and light. We are to know Him as salt, the righteousness, the covenant of our friendship, the flavoring of sacrifice and the preservation and influence that is essential to life. We are to know Him as the light source, the divine presence, the illumination, the enlightenment, the light that dispels darkness and fear. And in the knowing we are to share the core and purpose of our identity in Christ.
Pray we understand our identity. Pray we realize that the scandal of the cross is at the core of who we are. Pray we would remain faithful to our God given identity. Pray we not be weak or watered down but strong in our faith. Pray that we are positioned to be of some good in God’s Kingdom and that we will witness faithfully letting His light shine forth in our life, our work, our worship and relationships. Pray that we become the good news so that we can share the good news… that we become authentic and available… that we flavor life with His preserving salt and influence others for the Kingdom. Pray we bear witness to the truth.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 