This is the second post in a series from my (Robin) new book! Here is an excerpt from chapter 7.
Everything begins to fall apart for Adam and Eve (and the rest of us humans) when they listened to the serpents offering. He tells them that who they are is not good enough. He says that what they have accomplished is not sufficient and He offers them more. Before this temptation, Adam and Eve were content simply being God’s kids. They were not seeking more power or knowledge. They were not even hungry for the actual fruit. However, when the serpent tempted them with more power and knowledge, merely BEING Adam and Eve was not enough. Now they needed to add something to their existence. At this point, people lost their contentment with simply being.
When God begins his path of redemption for humanity, he goes back to the original plan. He identifies a group of humans as “his people.” Starting with Abraham and Sarah, God identifies Israelites as special simply because of WHO they are.
The Lord had said to Abram,
“Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-3).
God tells Abram to leave all that has defined him. He is to leave his homeland and family and be redefined entirely by God. God changes his name from Abram to Abraham to signify the complete identity revolution that is happening. God’s instructions are big, yet they are not complicated. In Genesis 17, God tells Abraham that he will make him the father of multiple nations (v.4). “I will BE your God, and you will BE my people.” The entire covenant is about identity between God and Abraham and his descendants.
From this point forward, the Israelites are known as “God’s people.” They are to be the vehicle for God’s salvation for all people. Through them, God speaks… to the world. Through the Jewish bloodline, God brings a savior that will redeem every broken part of the earth, creature, and person. However, all this meaningfulness rests NOT on the Jews’ ability to save the world. It is entirely reliant on them simply being God’s people and allowing God to work through them. If you have studied Israel’s plight through history, you know they have failed countless times to represent God. However, God never abandons the plan. God knows that their identity of being his people is enough.
If we fast forward to the beginning of the New Testament, we see a God who continues to love the world deeply, yet his people have lost their identity. There is so much confusion and turmoil. This text says it so clearly,
“the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:21-22 NLT).
Well aware of this groaning, God is about to transform everything and everyone when he enters the world as one of us, Jesus, the Son of God. Through Jesus, God will renew the earth literally from the ground up. Every creature, plant, and person can participate and reflect God’s beauty. This movement will remain in the same pattern as every other move of God. That is, God will identify his people.
We see this taking shape in the New Testament when John baptizes Jesus. As Jesus comes out of the waters of baptism, a voice from heaven says, “…This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy” Matthew 3:17 (NLT). At this point, Jesus had not taught a sermon, healed a blind eye, and had not died for the sins of the world. He was God’s son and brought great joy BEFORE he did the massive work of salvation. As he leaves the Jordan River that day, he begins his public ministry standing on the foundation of BEING someone and belonging to someone. All of his meaning (and obedience) stems from his identity.
Unfortunately, most of us do the opposite. We try to find our identity by what we do, what we like/dislike, how we dress, what groups we relate to, etc. We do good, obedient things to be in approved by God. We want His favor, so we exert an excessive amount of time and energy striving to be in good standing with God. When we are nailing it as a Christian, we feel terrific about ourselves. We feel like we are in good standing with God and therefore His son or daughter. When we are doing well, we are tempted to take the credit for our good behavior and we look down on those who are not holding their end of the bargain. In reverse, when we are struggling to live a righteous life with constant mess-ups, we regularly beat ourselves up. We live in guilt and explore ways to pay penance for our sin. In these moments, we feel God is far from us, and we do not deserve to be His son or daughter, and we feel less meaningful.
What People are Saying