Community

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”

Identity is a hot topic in the church as we all face the question of who we are. If you ask this question to ten different Christians, you will get ten different answers. Some will say I'm a sinner saved by grace; others will say I'm a child of God. We can pick and choose different metaphors from scripture. We can be sheep; we can be clay; we can be a servant, none of which are wrong, but they don't answer the question of who we are nor meet our need for communion.

If we view Identity as a label we wear, then it will never have the power to transform us. The Father is not the Father because he decided to wear the label in the same way the Son and the Holy Spirit are not who they are because they wear the name tag on their shirt.

Identity is a matter of community because we're made in the image of a communal God. 

For there are three that testify: 1 John 5:7

The Father derives his Identity from the Son, and the Son derives his Identity from the Father. The Holy Spirit derives his Identity from the Son and the Father. The trinity depends on each other. Without the Son, God would be creator, lawgiver, and Yahweh, but he would not be Father. 

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. - John 14:23

"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. - John 17:20-23

We are not to wear our Identity as a badge of honor but derive our Identity from the communion that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share with us. We are welcome to share the glory that the trinity shares with each other. We are sons and daughters and co-heirs with the Son. Your Identity testifies of who Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are. They're not meant to be read about in a book, but lived and experienced through you and me.