Have You Ever Lost Your ID?

If you've ever lost your wallet that had your photo ID and other forms of identification, you will agree it's the headache you'll remember the rest of your life. The history of identity loss can be traced back to Adam and Eve. But when they sinned, they didn’t just lose their ID cards. They actually lost their identity, and became something God never intended—merely human. Consequently, God purposed to reclaim His ‘lost’ ones, and restore their spiritual identity as His children.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, He was unrecognizable by even His most intimate friends: Mary Magdalene, the disciples, and even John and Peter. Thus Paul clarifies: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer” (2 Cor. 5:16 NASB). Then, applying this to us, Paul explains: “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:17 NLT) In other words, like Jesus, we should be longer recognizable as the ‘humans’ we were.

Jesus first introduced this idea of changing His identity when He referred to Himself as the “grain of wheat” that must go into the earth and die in order to emerge as something/someone new (John 12:24). In the earth, the grain of wheat is cracked open and destroyed—losing its identity. In God’s inside-out economy, losing your identity is not bad. In fact, it is essential if you want to experience your new one in Christ. For then, “just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49). Wouldn't it be great if someone were to look at you and say "What happened to you? I hardly recognize you!"