True Identity

The reason that Jesus Christ came to earth was — and is — to bring us to God. If we stop short of this revelation of God, we have stopped short of the full and final outworking of redemption’s purpose. When we come into the fullness of this revelation and into that direct relationship with God as Father, it supplies certain factors that are conspicuously lacking in the emotional experience of many people in our culture. The three things that come out of this revelation and relationship are identity, self-worth, and security.

Identity is a real problem for people today. An interesting clue to this problem was the success of the book and TV miniseries Roots. The essence of that story was a man’s search for his roots, or origins, in order to gain a stronger sense of identity. All humanity is busy with the same search. Men and women want to know where they came from, who is behind them, how it started, and who they are. Scripture and psychology agree that a person really does not answer the question, “Who am I?” until he or she knows who his or her father is.

Today, human relationships between parents and children increasingly have become broken and fragmented, and the result has been a widespread identity crisis. Christianity’s answer to that identity crisis is to bring men and women into a direct, personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. People who truly know God as Father no longer have an identity problem. They know who they are — they are children of God. Their Father created the universe, their Father loves them, and their Father cares for them.