Your Fundamental Identity

In much of the world, your fundamental identity is based on your involvement in a group. Who you are is integrally tied to the family you grew up in, the religion that you participate in, and the society of which you are a member. To disassociate from your family, religion, or society is the greatest treason, because you are betraying who you are. This is part of why Christianity is such a hard sell in many places. It calls people away from their religion, and often this creates friction in their family and society.

In the West, identity has been more complicated. For a time, it was tied to one’s religious affiliation. Now, it is increasingly tied to one’s psychological makeup and personality. The modern psychological notion is that ‘who you are’ is a personality with emotions. Hence, to be your ‘real self’ or ‘authentic self’ is to act in accord with your personality and emotions and desires. The greatest betrayal is to overrule your own inner desires and ‘live a lie’ by conforming to the world around you.

It’s no wonder that so many people (even merely nominal Christians who don’t live out the Christian faith in any meaningful way) love modern ‘worship’. It gives them that ‘feeling’ which makes them feel authentic and true. In this paradigm, the ultimate treason is to deny your own feelings. It’s to remain ‘in the closet’— whether about your sexual preferences, your personal opinions, etc. Our culture applauds the people who are open and honest about being insecure, about feeling anxious or depressed, etc. This is quite different from many societies around the world, where the ‘stiff upper lip’ (made most famous by the British) was valued, and it was seen as a mark of wisdom to not tell everyone your personal struggles.

Philip Rieff said, “Religious man was born to be saved, psychological man is born to be pleased.” This is the significance of identity: it explains your pursuit in life and what drives your choices.

Christianity’s answer to the question of identity focuses on being ‘in Christ.’ Through Paul’s masterful analysis of world history in Romans 5, all individuals are either ‘in Adam’ or ‘in Christ.’ To be ‘in Christ’ is to be spiritually united to him by faith, and this is more than merely an idea. It is a spiritual reality, so real as to affect God’s own view of us. (We are justified, even though we still sin!). To live out the Christian identity is to live in accordance with our already-true spiritual reality. The ultimate treason against your identity is sin. Sin is a fundamental betrayal of who you are, regardless of how you feel or what you desire.

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