2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
We live in a time when identity is as fluid as the morality it is founded upon. The diversity, equity, and inclusion movement has become a resonating mantra for Hollywood, the media, and is being taught in nearly every major business in America. If anyone claims to disagree they are quickly labeled with titles like transphobic, homophobic, or any other hate moniker meant to criminalize the offender. Employees are required to sign statements of acceptance, attend training seminars, or break out groups to indoctrinate their thinking, leaving little room for any form of free expression contrary to the agenda.
Social media sites are trying govern any form of expression that speaks against this perversion of identity while imposing their own sense of morality that affirms goodness to their ideology and evil toward anyone who opposes them.
False Identity
When people change their gender identity, they desire to change the way they present themselves. In a world that lacks meaning, the attempt to make gender fluid (changeable) is often an attempt to improve self-identity. This world has been broken for a long time and the evidence of that brokenness has become more apparent everyday.
There are many testimonials of people who have gone down this path, only to realize later the trouble and heartache that followed.
Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.”
What is even more troublesome is the fact that this ideology has been incorporated into many school curriculums. It’s not enough for people to flip the pronouns they want to be regarded by, or for men to wear dresses and women to take testosterone to grow facial hair, now they want to teach children to explore these options as well.
This world has no idea the trouble they are creating in the coming generation who will lack any self-identity outside what they have been taught by corrupt systems, teachers, and “progressive” parents.
God-made Identity
The difference between a follower of this world and a follower of the Lord comes down to their identity.
When the Lord calls an individual out of this world, He calls them to receive a new name or an identity associated with the One who saved their soul.
Revelation 3:12 “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”
The Lord is the originator of changing people’s identity; isn’t it just like the world to turn it into a twisted form of false identity. When someone wants to dress or act like the opposite sex, they reveal the depravity of their heart and mind. When a person comes to Christ, Jesus places His name upon their head and likewise the place where they will dwell one day. Righteousness is attributed to God’s people because of the redeeming value of the Savior over them, their citizenship will forever be with the Lord.
The world does everything it can to boost it’s image before others. By changing their name, image, or identity, they want to force others to accept their own form of depravity. Consequently, the people of God are in essence kept hidden from this world, a glory that is yet to be revealed.
Glory or Shame
When the Lord instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king over Israel, He gave him instructions for how to choose the right person.
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The reference God uses of mankind’s blindness is to his understanding of the true essence of a person—the heart. What may look pleasing to one person can be completely rejected by God. The ability to differentiate between a person who has a good heart and one that lives in corruption is an attribute given by the Spirit of God. Samuel had to remain sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in order to see David for how God saw him, a man after God’s own heart.
When people change their appearance from the gender by which they were created, they wear their shame for all to see. When someone comes to Christ in repentance and humility, they come in lowliness with a heart to die to themselves. The image of pride, self-righteousness, or adornment is forsaken and the image of Christ is all they desire.
The image the world presents brings confusion, the image God reveals is one of sanctification and grace. Since all the world has is what they see, the church becomes an anomaly to all who have rejected the hope of salvation.
The decisions we make now, will affect us for eternity.
2 Timothy 4:8 “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
For those who have died to themselves, new life awaits. The reward for placing their faith in Christ will be given when God judges the living and the dead. The dead remain lifeless in their sin. The reward for living a life of rebellion and self-fulfillment comes with a great cost.
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.”
The Lord sees beyond the charade of false identity and looks to the heart. It is from a heart that dwells in rebellion that a false image is then portrayed.
The false front of people who want to be something they are not also extends into the church. There are those who live out their sin openly, then there are those who live in a charade of false-righteousness.
Fake Christians
The image the world presents can be easily recognized, the image of deception is not as easily discerned.
Jude 1:4 “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
All forms of criticism have been directed towards the church because of those who live by the moniker of christianity and yet inwardly remain in rebellion.
Jude 1:8 “Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.”
The truth of the world is only but an illusion. The image they present is a defilement against the purity of God’s holiness. Conversely, when people claim an association with Christ and yet reject Him in their heart, they blaspheme His name before the world.
Listen to the ways God sees this falsity:
Jude 1:12-13 “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”
Live out your identity in Christ
True love for the Lord is to embrace His commands. His word is very clear on how a believer represents themself before the Lord and to the world.
Identity means a great deal to God—it is not to be trifled with. God identifies Himself in His people and His people identify themselves with the Lord. If Christ is in you, His Spirit reveals His glory through you.
Be very cautious with the image you present but more importantly consider where your heart is found—it can be the difference between eternal reward or eternal judgment.
U.T. 