Who Do You Think You Are, Anyway?

[HKHaugan]

Identity: Alone, Naked and Afraid

It seems there is a TV show called 'Naked and Afraid' that has taken the Genesis condition of Adam and Eve trying to reduplicate a Garden of Eden situation. I've never seen it but its preview suggests a naked man and woman meet in some wilderness and try to survive. But like all secular contrived theatricalisms it misses the real issue of human imperfection, aloneness, and the spiritual reality of sin causing that condition in the first place. What they need to understand is that they are, like the rest of us, in the Land of Nod, East of Eden, a long way from Eden and they can't get back in no matter how hard they try. Until they add the word 'afraid', they will never get it right. They are alone, naked and afraid and in desperate need of the Lord God.

The issue is spiritual. The Land of Nod is a spiritual place. We've been in it since Adam and Eve. People without God are spiritually alone, spiritually naked and spiritually afraid. This is the actual spiritual state of a person without God: alone, naked and afraid (Gen.3:10). This is the human condition Jesus came to change. Let's take this condition and see what it means.

First, alone. Alone is to be self conscious, that is, conscious of a self being an individual in a physical body, separate, spiritually and relationally disconnected. It's that awareness of being solitary, singular and isolated in a body limited by physical mobility, life span and intelligence, having to search for an identity with meaning and purpose. While we are created to be individuals it was for the enjoyment of relational connection like Father, Son and Holy Spirit have. It's the Trinitarian nature of God. But, separated from God, people have no spirit available to achieve that connection except sin, its self-centeredness and fear. There are false spirits, counterfeit spirits, like greed, lust, jealousy, pride and rage, spirits of the moment that are destructive. You can tell them by the fact they offer only momentary satisfaction. They have one aim, to keep you separated from God and isolated into eternal aloneness. This is why God said after Creation, “It is not good for the man to be alone (Gen.2:18).”

Second, naked. God did not make man and woman to be spiritually naked. They were filled with relational oneness in the Spirit of God. They had no concept of nakedness until they disobeyed God. Nakedness was Adam's description of what he felt after disobeying God. He had the realization of internal emptiness, not having an identity, not knowing who He was. It's the absence of feeling right within and without, constantly feeling a nagging insecurity and uncertainty. The Spirit of God is gone from within. Spiritual vacancy leads to relational emptiness and we were made to be relational with God and one another.

Spiritual emptiness will result in us looking for what can fill it for any given moment. To repeat, nakedness is a spiritual condition; the loss of relational oneness with God, which is followed by a loss of confidence, a loss of being right within and without, a loss of love, balance, acceptance, recognition. It's never being really sure. It's like that feeling you get after an exam. You think you got it right but you may have failed and so you wait nervously for the results. That's what it's like with people. In the midst of others is the exam and it comes with a need to look at people around you before you say or do anything. The real measure of nakedness is how deeply we feel our aloneness when we are confronted with the need 'to fit in,' to be right. Judgment is always around us. This is when we are most vulnerable to let the attitudes and opinions of others influence us.

Third, afraid. Fear is the emotion that rises when there is the need 'to fit in.' Fear subtly keeps us from thinking about our lonely emptiness, our lonely weaknesses and limitations. And we don't like them exposed for others to see. Fear is what we feel when confronted with pain, conflict, uncertainty, sickness, physical danger and anything we consider a threat internally or externally. Physical fear is not the major fear we face. It's the fear of being relationally left out, not accepted, being a relational failure, all of which come out of our deepest need, the need to be right. We fear not being right whether we are alone or with others. What President Franklin Roosevelt said is resident here, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Sin is what caused this vacant condition. From it sprang vacant purpose, vacant meaning and vacant recognition each of which centered on the moment of a particular desire. Apart from God it is usually the desire of the moment that begs for justification and trust; reason to act and whatever or whoever enables, encourages, the desire. What initiates the desire? Is it recognition, possessions, relationships, inner drives, external lures? Sin is there for instant gratification and the devil is ready to offer spirits that can be used for motivation and justification. You can tell when the devil and his spirits are at work. We make excuses just like Adam when he blamed Eve and Eve in turn blamed the devil. Excuses and blame are the devil's strategies to give us momentary satisfaction so that we will continue on that path as a way of life.

Jesus is the Right One proven by His Cross and Resurrection. His satisfaction was doing His Father's will which was to be faithful in every next moment. That's His will for us. Faith in Jesus is the way of life for a disciple. He satisfies the mind, heart and spirit; the image of God in each of us. Jesus makes that quite clear when He tells us to ask, seek and knock (Mt.7:7-8). He wants us to ask who we are, seek what our purpose is and to knock on the door of opportunity.

Our mind asks for justification, that is, right thinking, a reason for living and its moment by moment behavior. It needs truth. Jesus tells us the Word is truth (Jn.17:17). He is the One we are to be like.

The heart seeks trust, a way to be sure we present ourselves in the right way. The heart seeks a trustworthy person to follow. “I am the way, the truth and the life” Jesus tells us (Jn.14:6). He is the One we are to trust wherever we are.

Our spirit knocks on the door searching for the Spirit of wisdom so we can function properly. Living with a right mind, a right heart and then to be right. This is where the Holy Spirit fills the emptiness, the vacancy in us. He is the faith builder through the Word. He is the One who functions through us. He brings Jesus into our minds and hearts to restore our mind, give us trust in Him for our heart and faith to be an active disciple. The Holy Spirit internalizes Jesus in us and instills the faith that neutralizes fear (Jn.14:26). Jesus is the One who instills faith in us through His Spirit.

We know who we are and whose we are. With Jesus we are no longer alone. We are dressed with belief, trust and faith in Him. His Spirit restores our uniqueness as an image, child and witness of God.

“Now you know the rest of the story.”