The Basics of Being ChristianSample

Who am I?

One of the most insightful things to discover is how much our view of ourselves directs our decisions.

What does that mean? Think about a professional athlete. They know that if they want to perform their very best, they can’t just eat a bunch of junk food all the time. Even though it may taste good in the moment, it will leave them feeling like garbage later and significantly hinder their performance. So, when the decision presents itself, they already know to go with a meal that is nutrient dense and designed to help them play their best.

How we view ourselves determines the decisions we make.

This isn’t just true in athletics though. It’s true in every aspect of our lives. If you see yourself as a good student, you’ll show up more focused at school and work harder on your projects. If you see yourself as a troublemaker, you’ll probably goof off and look for excuses to cause distractions. If you see yourself as someone who has to be perfect, you’ll likely spend a whole lot of time and energy trying to present yourself as perfect. When things inevitably go wrong, you’ll take that failure harder than others.

How we view ourselves determines the decisions we make.

So, if that’s the case, then who does God say we are? To answer that question we need to go all the way back to the beginning of the story.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 NIV

We are made in the image of God. From the first moment human beings enter the story, we are told that there is something special about us. Unlike any other creature, we are uniquely created in the image of God. What does that mean? It means that we are created with the capacity to love, create, and choose. We were created by God with dignity, value, and purpose that sets us apart from the rest of the world. And get this, after creating human beings, God looks at everything He has made and calls it, “very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

Before you were anything else, you were made in the image of God. And He called you very good.

Tragically though, the story moves forward to an event known as the Fall. Here, God’s human partners use their free will to reject God as their king and they rebel against Him. This act of rebellion throws all of creation into chaos and Sin breaks in. Sin is a disease that distorts and disrupts every aspect of who we are and what we were meant to do. It blinds us to the image of God in ourselves and the image of God in others. It bends us towards selfishness and pride. And in its wake we are racked with shame. If we want a full understanding of who we are as humans, we have to understand that we have been marred by sin.

But the Good News of the Gospel is that Sin does not have the final say. Jesus does. And when Jesus arrived in history He came announcing a new hope for humanity that came in the form of the forgiveness of sins. The Bible teaches that anyone who places their trust in Jesus and commits to be His follower becomes a new creation. Once that happens, our old lives are left behind as we become something beautiful and glorious in the eyes of God.

So, who are you? You are made in the image of God. You have been marred by Sin. And you are made new in Christ.

Consider: When you think about yourself, do you see yourself more as someone marred by sin, or made new in Christ? How does that view of yourself shape the choices you make? How do you remind yourself of who you really are when you start to forget?