Why Jesus? It's About Who We Claim To Be

[HKHaugan]

Why Jesus? It's About Who We Claim to Be

Who told you who and what you are? Who and what gave them the right? Who or what do we choose to define ourselves and others? Everyone has a lens through which they view themselves and the people around them. What principles of thought and behavior do we use to size up those in our family and the people we meet? What goes on inside us that we want the world to see whenever we are among others? What do we want to be like when we are in the midst of a group of friends or people we don't know or when we are alone in a strange place? What goes on inside of us when we have to give answers to questions that are uncomfortable? Or to react in circumstances that are uncomfortable that call us to stand up and be counted on issues that we feel strongly about but don't feel secure enough to stand because we fear looking inadequate?

But there are other things that too that are deeper. Our heart feels for the condition of others who are going through their own identity crisis because of the treatment they receive. Somehow we feel the need to identify with them regardless of their moral condition. But we need to feel secure in ourselves first. We may feel for them because of our problem in their area of concern. Or we take up their cause because we have a need to correct what we perceive as abusers.

Take gender issues for instance. Suppose we have family or friends having doubts about who they are as men and women? How do we react to questions about and knowledge of people who make astounding claims about what they presume they really are. Facebook offers over fifty gender definitions. Famous personalities think they are trans-gendered or tend to lean more to one side than the other. Our emotionality seem criss-crossed from time to time. Waiting in the wings like vultures are those who prey on this confusion ready to feed on those insecurities and define who you are for their own agenda. There are cries all around us that say because men have emotions at all, that is our feminine side coming out or for women who feel they are being put down because they are women. So because they are women they need to take on so-called male behavior to counter that perception since they are living in a 'man's world.'

How are we supposed to read our natural attraction to other people regardless of their gender? Does all mutual attraction have to be read based on gender and concluded sexually? Do we have to succumb to everything the body wants? Do we listen to voices promising immediate answers? Or is there another way to deal openly and honestly regardless of our inner fascinations? Is there a way to sort out distorted male and female self concepts that have been shaped by youthful experimentation, parental avoidance, predatory adults and past experience? A lot of questions out there, aren't there?

Gender identity is nothing new in human history. It's been with us since Adam and Eve and spoken to quite openly in Genesis 19. Why are we all so quick to yield to second hand worldly authority to answer deeply internal personal identity issues? No matter how big, tough and in control we men may think we are and how sensitive, soft and tender a woman may be, it is our heart that carries the burden. Is there a non-physical femininity and a non-physical masculinity, you know, the old 'mystique' issue? Therein lies the final puzzle in all self definition and behavior. Here is where Scripture comes as the real defining authority. It gives us the specifics direct from the Creator. He knows the internal workings in every person and as the risen Lord He alone can neutralize the confusion in our aloneness. He does it through the Holy Spirit acting through Scripture as we yield to His presence and its authority.

The questions of who we are and why goes way beyond our physical body but it starts there because that is what we live in. Being alone within, the issue hides in our hearts and is avoided because we we find it hard to articulate what we think and feel. After all, we don't want to appear inadequate. It is uncomfortable subject because most people have no clue as to the source of the confusion or know how to deal with it. Either we hide behind a secular male macho tradition or a female emotional tradition. How do we deal with our inner attractions that seem to criss-cross those traditions? Are we male or female, a combination of both or is there another alternative? Let's approach this as disciples of Jesus have done for almost 2000 years.

First, as disciples of Jesus we know that the answer can never arrive from within because of our imperfections coming from sin---our aloneness, our fear and our pride. We need an external source of authority, the Creator's definition found In His Word.

Second, as imperfect people the fact of confusion and the insecurity sin brings, we look for common grounds for acceptance; like-minded people having the same confusion, with whom we can identify. Here is where predators make themselves known. And predators by the way are those who have concluded that they have the right to be their own authority regardless of any legitimate authority.

Third, in our struggle to define ourselves do we tend to let our bodies dictate our identity by the desires that rise within it? Does out confusion define us? Do we allow the experience and reasoning of others dictate who and what we are? Who can we trust for the answers? The Lord is clear about Scripture being the basis for our reasoning about all human issues.

Fourth, do we find ourselves identifying with the confusion in others and take on their identity to justify helping them deal with the injustices heaped on them, a kind of savior complex? Empathy and sympathy can derail us and the temptation to self-justification is really being one's own god.

As disciples of Jesus we know that there are two authorities in direct conflict vying for our obedience. They are the world attitudes overseen by the devil and spiritual reality revealed and ruled by God. The world offers multiple distractions of social, psychological, religious and philosophical systems claiming to have the answers. With God, it's plain and simple. His authority is Scripture. In it we find He created two genders, male and female. They are defined by their physical bodies.

The question is not about sexuality but rather who we choose to define the physical use of our male and female bodies.

What the world does with the body is to declare it as our final authority thus making the body the master of the heart, the mind and the spirit. When the body rules, it is the mind that reasons, justifies, then rationalizes desire. The heart becomes just an emotional machine and the spirit a motivator to feel and satisfy the body.

What God does with the body is seen in Jesus. He uses it as a vehicle for spiritual expression to show who He is and who His Father is. When God rules, the mind thinks like Jesus as Scripture reveals. The heart is the relational center trusting Jesus as Lord in the choices and decisions we make. The Holy Spirit inspires faith for our spirit to follow where the mind and heart of Jesus lead. What does Jesus have to say about being a man and a woman and how should they choose to manage those differences? As the popular expressions say, “It ain't rocket science” and “It's certainly not brain surgery.”

Ask about any issue that involves our human nature and Scripture will have an answer. Those who are not believers will deny, reject, oppose and even attack what Scripture says. Realize and expect the spirit of sin to use every argument against its contents. The Holy Spirit will supply the necessary attitude of peace and insight to give faithful answers which may or may not be what antagonists want to hear. But it is not the answers we give but the attitude that prompts our answers; the calmness we show, the lack of defensiveness while we answer and the genuine concern for where they are in their human walk. Again we operate on this repeated principle, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Why? Because that's how Jesus came to the world to bring us His mind, His Heart and His Spirit. He was God the Son who arrived in our neighborhood to live a human experience, a human experience that was spiritually perfect obeying the will of His perfect Father, the Father and Creator of all humanity.