Living Lessons on IdentitySample

Part Three: The Body: “the earth suit”

Dr. Bill Gillham, called our bodies an earth suit.1 Bodies are only suitable for earth. They help us get around, interact with others and accomplish things that we need to do for everyday living. They connect with our feelings and thoughts to make our lives more interesting, and full. Our bodies will not go to Heaven. We will need a new one, a resurrected one, for that. 

As we look at our identity in Christ, in order to understand all that Christ did on the Cross and what it means for us, we will distinguish these “three parts.” It will also be helpful to answer some questions such as, “Who am I?” “Why do I talk about myself in different ways?” “Who is the ‘I’ in this verse?” “What does it mean to be ‘in’ someone?” Much of what we will look at is on a spiritual level, but here and there the spiritual and physical will both be involved. 

“I” is both spiritual (the spirit part of us) and physical (the soul personality and body.) Most often we mix these together without thinking about it all. It can be helpful to distinguish, although in truth, “I am me, a whole person.”

One reason for distinguishing our “three parts” is in order to learn some of the things God says about us that are true spiritually, but we may not understand them or be experiencing them. If one is not experiencing what God says is true, then it’s easy to think it’s not true—and "throw the baby out with the bathwater". For example, God says we are accepted in Christ, but if, like Ann and John whom we looked at in the previous devotion, rejection was the main form of interaction we learned, acceptance will be a foreign truth, especially at times when we behave badly. “I,” the real me, the spirit part of me, is accepted in the Beloved whether I behave that way or not. Like any good parent, God will correct behavior without condemning His child. He will remember who the child is; He will separate personhood and behavior.

As we dissect the spirit-soul-body and look at who is “I,” another “I” we use is the soul part, our unique personality that makes us different from others. God loves this “I” very much, too, and He skillfully made each one of us as different as snowflakes and fingerprints. Unfortunately, in our fallen world, the soul gets damaged when hurt and not comforted. People with damaged souls believe lies that cause behavior problems, further confusing how we look at what is true about us in the spiritual realm. We live out of what we believe (Proverbs 23:7). For example, if we look down and see a rattlesnake by our foot, we will feel great fear and try to run. Our emotions and our behavior will look like what we believe. In a moment, we find out that the snake is made of rubber. Now we believe something else, and although our emotions may still be high, the behavior will change.2  Behavior works the same way with spiritual knowledge. We may know lots of scripture, but what we truly believe in our heart at a given moment will determine our behavior. One important result of knowing this principle is that it helps us see that we are not bad—it’s the lie that we believe that is tripping us up. As Christians, in our spirits we do not need to change. We are A-Okay there. It’s what we believe that needs to change. 

I have a friend who was told growing up that he was stupid and would never amount to much. In spite of the fact that he earned a college degree in engineering and had a successful career, for years, deep inside, he believed he was stupid and inadequate. Those beliefs showed up in his family relationships and his verbal evaluations of himself. He would not try to do hard tasks around the house and continually felt like a failure. It was not until he learned who he is in Christ that he stopped putting himself down and began to branch out and try new things. Like the rattlesnake story, my friend acted out what he felt and believed to be true.

Application: 

Is there something you believe about yourself that does not correlate with what God says about you? Replace that with His truth. What wrong messages were you given growing up that God needs to change? Let God show you so that He can replace those lies with His truth.

  

1 Lifetime Guarantee, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 97402, 1993, pages 71-72

2 Rattlesnake story from Bill Gillham, LIfetime Guarantee, pages 21-22