FORGING A NEW IDENTITY FROM GOD

I have to confess that I have a very difficult time on Sunday mornings. For 23 years Sunday morning was my big moment of the week as I preached to my beloved congregation. I looked forward all week to that Sunday moment. It was there I felt most alive, most reward, most meaning to my life, and when I was living out my purpose on this earth. All of that ceased 2 1/2 years ago and now Sunday mornings are just sad for me.  It was if my identity became amputated when I gave up my ministry and pulpit.  I was amputated from my role and identity as a preaching/teaching pastor. For me, what I do has always contributed significantly to my own self understanding. I felt amputated from my profession as a pastor; and amputated from myself as a husband.  In short, it was the amputation of who I once was or wanted to be, the self I may no longer become. Loss confuses our identity because we measure ourselves primarily by the roles we play in life and the relationships we have. For me, I have found myself in vertigo  from all the loss and change. Sometimes I feel like a complete stranger to myself. I do not know what to do with me. I have found myself living this new life but acting still like I was living the old life. Whoever I perceived my self to be has been unable to find its old place. It feels homeless.

I have often times these past few years tried to form a new identity by attempting to replace the amputated identity with something new. It has not worked for me.

Anyone who has exprienced loss or disappointments can understand the confusion. Our language reveals it: "I used to be a husband  until I lost my wife. I used to be a pastor until I lost my church. I used to be _____(fill in the blank) until I lost my________(fill in the blank).

We call this an identity crises. But loss can often times becomes the spring board for forging a new identity, one that God defines for us. God uses loss to create new environments and circumstances that draw us close to Him where we find our true identity.

My reality is that I am divorced. My children are all grown up and living their own lives. Most of the circle of friends I once had are all gone. I no longer have the church I pastored for 23 years. These are the undeniable realities of my life.

But I also have new love in my life. I have a house church that I pastor. I have new friends. But, I have something more. In reality I have always had it. I am learning that my identity is not defined in what I do, where I live, my health, my possessions, my image, my relationships, and favorable circumstances. Loss has finally caused me to come to the end of myself and to the beginning of a vastly deeper,vital relationship with God. George Mueller used to say, "the end of self, is the beginning of God."

Loss caused me to see how much I took favorable things in life for granted. When all the things that I had forged to find identity were taken away I discovered that I had based my identity largely on external things. I discovered that I desperately need someone greater than Bill Robison to help me find my worth.  God is helping me to find my identity in Him and His love, grace, and mercy. I am learning to simply be who I am in Him.

The apostle Peter really helps us in forging our identity.Keep in mind that Peter is identifying Christians. This is who you are if you are a Christian. This is how you got your identity as a Christian. This is what you are here for as a Christian. He gives five ways of describing your identity, answering the question of who you are.

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10


1. You are a chosen race Verse 9 The chosen race is not black or white or red or yellow or brown. The chosen race is a new people from all the peoples -- all the colors and cultures -- who are now aliens and strangers among in the world. In verse 11 Peter writes, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers . . ." What gives us our identity is not color or culture but chosiness. Christians are the chosen race. We are the black chosen and the white chosen and the yellow chosen and the red chosen. Out from all the races we have been chosen - one at a time, not on the basis of belonging to any group. Who am I? I am chosen by God! John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you." Ephesians 1:4, "for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” I do not know why. It was nothing in me of value above other humans. I did not earn it or merit it, or meet any conditions to get it. It happened before I was born. Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you.” I stand in awe of it. I tremble with joy at it. I bow and accept it. I long to be faithful to its purpose. I am chosen by God!
2. You are pitied Verse 10b: ". . . you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." I choose the word "pitied" because the word for mercy in Greek here is a verb and the closest word we have in English like "mercied" is "pitied." It's not a bad translation. When God chose us, he then saw us in our sin and guilt and condemnation and he pitied us. We are not just chosen. We are pitied. We are the not just the objects of his choice, but the objects of his mercy. I am chosen and I am pitied- or you could say I am "graced." I am "loved." God did not just choose me and stand aloof. He is 100% for me! He chose me and then drew near in mercy to help me and save me. My identity is fundamentally this: I have been shown mercy. I am a "mercied" person. I get my identity not first from my actions, but from being acted upon -- with pity. I am a pitied one.

3. You are God's possession This is expressed twice. Verse 9: "You are . . . a people for his own possession." Verse 10a: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people."
You are chosen by God; you are pitied by God; and the effect of that pity -- that mercy -- is that God takes you to be his own possession. In what sense are we Christ’s possession? The Apostle Paul describes it as a peculiar ownership this way in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"

In what sense? He explains in verse 20: "For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." Paul describes two ways that Christ makes us his own: purchase and habitation. There was a time in this country when you could lay claim to a piece of land in the west by simply going there and living on it, homesteading it. And of course there is the more traditional ways of obtaining land, paying for it. Christ did both in order to possess a people for himself: he bought us, and he homesteaded us. "You are not your own. For you have been bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) – that’s the purchase. "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit . . . You are not your own" . . . "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9) – that’s the homesteading. He bought us with his blood, and he moves in by his Spirit. Wow! If you are a Christian, you are not your own. You belong to Christ and are homesteaded by Christ.

4. You are holy Verse 9: "You are a . . . holy nation." You have been chosen and pitied and possessed by God; and therefore you are not merely part of the world any more. You are set apart by God for God. You exist for God. And since God is holy, you are holy. You share his character, because he chose you, pitied you, possessed you. When God is called holy it means that He is unique, separate, and distinct, in a class by all by himself. So to speak of God’s Holiness speaks of His infinite and unique and ultimate value. You are not just patched up converted sinners. You are Holy in God’s sight! This means that He has separated you unto himself; therefore you are unique, special, and distinct from the world. You are holy. If you do not act in a holy way, you act out of character. You contradict your essence as a Christian. For your identity is holiness to the Lord: you are holy. No wonder why Peter says in 1 Peter 1:15-16, 'but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

5. And finally, you are a royal priest. Verse 9: "You are a ... royal priesthood." You are chosen by God and pitied by God and possessed by God and holy like God and royal priests to God. You are chosen by God and pitied by God and possessed by God and holy like God and royal priests to God. The point here is first that you have immediate access to God - you don't need another human priest as a mediator. God himself provided the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. You have direct access to God, through God. And, second, you have an exalted, active role in God's presence. You are not chosen, pitied, possessed, and holy just to fritter away your time doing nothing. You are called now to minister in the presence of God. All your life is priestly service. That's an unbeatable combination. Being holy makes us fit to serve a holy God. And being royal makes us fit to serve the King of Kings. You are never out of God's presence. You are never in a neutral zone. You are always in the court of the temple. And your life is either a spiritual service of worship (Rom. 12:1-2), or it is out of character.

O Christian, know who you are. Forge your identity solely in him, not external things like work, possessions, environment, relationships, and favorable circumstances. More importantly, know whose you are. Know who is your purpose. Take with you the awe of knowing that God has chosen you and made you into a chosen race, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Let this be your identity and let Him be your purpose. Let it distinguish you from the world as you set about the king's priestly business declaring and showing his Excellencies. Let God define you and let his defining grace change how you think, what you desire, and how you live.

I believe that with this new identity I can simply be as a chosen man, a pitied man, an owned man, a holy man, and a priestly man whether i am divorced, widowed, unemployed, poor, alone, abused, rejected, sick, or even dying.I can allow myself to loved by God though my body may be broken, my thoughts confused, and my emotions troubled.

Forging my identity in God alone day by day by His mercy and grace,
Pastor Bill