TO BE > TO DO
Western society is abundantly supplied with calls to engage in activity in order to validate identity, different movements will often utilize peoples hope for how they will be perceived (by themselves and others) to get them to respond and engage in a particular action. Social justice movements will use peoples desire to be seen as progressive and compassionate to get them to back a particular cause, car companies will use people's desire to be seen as successful to get them to purchase a particular vehicle, and tourism companies will use peoples desire to be good parents to get them to book a particular vacation destination and so on and so on. We are constantly being inundated with attacks on our identity and constantly being barraged with attempts to manipulate our response based upon insecurity in who we are.
Unfortunately, this tactic is also prevalent in the church. sermons and books will often have titles like "10 ways to be a good Christian" or "6 steps to living a faithful life" or better yet "How to know if you are saved". Most of these are offered as genuine instruction meant to bless the lives of those they are directed toward by identifying acceptable activity . But, within the depths of these approaches lies a fundamental issue, they are antithetical to the Gospel. We are not called to operate in insecurity but rather in absolute confidence. The Gospel, or good news is that the doing required to be accepted and transformed, has already been successfully accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST and by trusting that anything we are required to do has already been done by JESUS, we are credited eternally with his standing before GOD. We are gifted with a new identity by resting in who he is, not proving who we are.
Disciples of JESUS are not those who do in hopes of becoming, they are those who have become and live out of who they already know they are. Any action we engage in that is positively oriented towards "being christian" is the result of our existing identity not the proof of it. Therefore we respond from inner conviction, not outward compulsion, driven by hope and love, not shame and fear.
Depending on your religious background, this may be a revelation and you may be naturally skeptical, let me offer some verses from the BIble for your consideration...
[John 15:4-8] 4 "Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 "If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
Do our actions prove our identity? Yes, and this glorifies GOD.
How are those actions produced? Exclusively by remaining (read: living, resting) in JESUS.
So what are called to? Trusting JESUS with being the source of all aspects of our acceptance and activity.
How about an old favorite of many of my pious friends? The book of James.
James 1:22-25 CSB 22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works -- this person will be blessed in what he does.
"See Chris, we are called here to do something to prove our identity". Dear friend, read closer.
What is the result of being doers of the word? Simply put, blessing.
Nowhere in these verses are we called to obedient response to prove our identity, instead we are called to enjoy our identity and the resulting blessing & freedom by doing what the word tells us. It is for our benefit, not for our validation.
Now you may say to me "but what about James 2:14, 17? (14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? ... 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.), doesn't that prove that we must do to prove who we are? That our faith is genuine?"
To answer this reasonable objection it is important to hear James statement in the fuller context of his letter, allow me to quote a couple of verses which proceed this truth:
James 2:1 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
James 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
James 2:12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
James 2:13 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
What specific activity is the focus of this chapter? Favoritism, specifically of favoring the rich to the poor.
Does James try to create doubt or confidence in his audience's identity? I would contend that he actually affirms their new identity, he said that they were the poor chosen to be rich heirs of the kingdom, and that their treatment of the poor should be consistent with who they are. he is not calling them to do, but instead to be.
I could go on, I could show how though the apostle Paul writes his epistles often trying to correct error in the churches they were addressed to, he almost always starts his letters by confirming who his audience already is by their placement in JESUS. But rather than belabor the point, I would prefer to encourage you to what this means for you the reader.
Ephesians 1:4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.
Brother or sister you have arrived, you are already loved, you have been loved before the foundation of the world in CHRIST, you have nothing to fear, nothing to prove, and therefore nothing to lose. You do not need to be moved by your insecurity, but you can be blessed and a blessing to others through the confidence you now have in what CHRIST has already made you to be. GOD is not looking for some perceived version of you to save but has saved already the you, just as you are now, a sinner made saint.
Who he has made you to be will be evident if you will simply rest in him and trust in the transformation which is already a reality by the might, power and glory of the risen SON of GOD. Your rest in him will produce fruit and GOD will be glorified in that. You can rise everyday committed to be who GOD has made you, all that he intended both before and after your trust in JESUS, and allow your doing the to result from that. You have been called to live in him, and by result of that you will live for him, this is how he will be glorified through you.
So my question to you this New Years Day is not "what will you do in 2024?" but rather "who are you now and what will JESUS do with that in the coming year?". I join you in the anticipation, confidence and hope in the answer to that question.
One love,
Pastor Sherpa
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