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By Dean Kelly

We have heard coaches at various levels and different sports reflect the same idea, “Our team needs to find its identity.” They basically mean that the team needs to learn to work together, and to be on the same page with what they are doing. They must determine what they do the best and emphasize that as a team.

We should ask ourselves, in our lives, “What is my identity?”  We all have many parts of our lives. We may be a husband or wife, father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, etc. We also may be identified by whatever our vocation is. We all are complex in our lives, filling many different roles. 

The question here is, when everything is stripped down, what is our identity? 

Think of some biblical “identities”.

A Friend Of God – “And the scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (James 2:23-24). He was a friend of God because he had an active obedient faith.

A Man After God’s Own Heart – “And when He removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will’” (Acts 13:22). Obviously, David was not sinless, but he was ultimately a man after the heart of God. God defines that with the words, “who will do all My will.”

A Man Who Caused Israel To Sin – “And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sin” (1 Kings 13:16). Here is a negative identity. Jeroboam inserted idolatry into the country of Israel after it was divided from Judah. His actions, just like Abraham and David, determined his ultimate identity.

What is your identity? Won’t you come to Calvary and begin to build an identity in Jesus – as above all else, simply a Christian? It starts when we meet Him at the cross.

Dean Kelly is minister at Highland Home Church of Christ.