We have all kinds of excuses for sin. We blame it on our parents. On our friends. On our community, church, entertainment… The list goes on and on. But one of the most insidious and increasingly frequent excuses for sinful behavior goes like this: It’s just who I am.
This works for everything. Homosexual? I can’t help it – it’s just who I am. Watching porn? It’s not my fault – it’s how God made me. Arrogant and caustic? That’s just me. Bear with it.
Who We Are
First and foremost we are God’s creation. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them…” (Ephesians 2:10). The Bible tells us God made us, and furthermore created us with purpose. We were not just created to go our own way, but to walk in the works He prepared for us.
At face value, this might seem to support the idea that “God made me this way…” However, a second important part of our identity as human beings comes into play here:
We are corrupted by sin nature. “For as by one man sin came into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed to all men….”
There exists within us a “flesh” which wars against the work of the Spirit, empowered by sin which constantly works to corrupt us to its own ends. The flesh corrupts and can indeed only corrupt, but all things from the Spirit are pure. Ultimately this leads to the following conclusion:
Who we are in the flesh contrasts who we are in the Spirit.
In the Spirit, we are children of God, called according to His purposes. In the flesh, we may very well be sexually immoral, proud, arrogant, contemptuous, full of hate, contentious, idolatrous, and more. In fact, Paul writes many such lists about the deeds of the flesh, and contrasts them with the fruits of the Spirit. Because in Christ, we are none of these. Instead, we love one another. We are peaceful, seek everyone else’s benefit even above our own. We are humble. We are kind, faithful… The list could go on, but this is a glimpse of our potential in the Spirit.
So who we are reflects who we follow. If we follow the flesh, we are servants of sin and death. But if we follow the Spirit, we are children of God.
Ultimately, victory in identity can be found when we choose to reject the sinful version of ourselves and, through prayer and dedication, allow God to empower the spiritual version. This isn’t an easy process. It takes time. It takes effort. We have to practice recognizing thoughts, words, and actions that stem from the fleshly version of ourselves and, through prayer and practice, abandon those for the will of the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to shape us into our spiritual selves.
