What makes you who you are?
That’s one of the bigger questions that I’ve pondered in my life. It’s rooted in the always-perplexing “who are you?” question that led off the most recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. That voice, whatever it was, saying those words made me so excited.
Sorry, that was a sidetrack.
Anyways, identity is one of the most important things you’ll ever decide on in your life. Why are you the way that you are? Who made you that way? What made you that way? How do you define yourself? Huge questions.
People find the answer to those questions in a number of things. Even Christians, who have the most obvious answer to that question, seem to be searching most of the time.
Sometimes it’s in being a Republican. Sometimes it’s in being the best apologist for Jesus out there. Sometimes it’s in being a “‘liberal’ Gospel-centered believer.” Ouch, that kinda hit home. Sometimes it’s in the things we don’t do – not cussing, not drinking, not having sex before marriage, etc.
But there are also negative things we might use to define ourselves. Sometimes it’s how much we fail at following Christ. Sometimes it’s the thoughts we have that frustrate us because we know they’re not good thoughts. Sometimes it’s the flack we get from other people who criticize what we say. Sometimes it’s the flack we give ourselves, thinking it’s God that’s telling us those things.
Christian, you’re called that because of the blood of Jesus alone. That’s it.
Yup. Blood.
Blood shed on a cross, for you and for me. That’s what makes you a Christian. It’s not the prayer you pray. It’s not the confession. It’s not the heart change. Those things lead to Jesus’ blood being applied to you, your name etched in the Book of Life, your eternal destiny (a joyful one) sealed.
Signed, sealed. Never to be changed.
See, while we can wash the human blood off of us that comes out of our body when we get a cut or scrape our knee, the blood of Jesus is a permanent stain, a permanent mark. It means that, even when we feel the worst in the world, God still delights in us enough to not take that blood away.
It’d be easy for Him to do that, just as easy as it is for us to wipe blood off of us. All it would take is His finger.
But fortunately, it’s the same finger that gave us life at birth, and new life at rebirth. And that finger is too busy holding us up to push us down, to push us away.
Today I feel the weight of my sin. Today I feel the fire I’ve heaped onto my own lap (Proverbs 6:27). Today I feel like poop. Today the depression based on my sin is heavy, hard to carry.
But there’s God, holding me up, not taking me down. Because being one of His, being a Christian, doesn’t start, continue or finish based on my actions. It’s based on Jesus’ actions. The ones He took 2,000-plus years ago.
I need to embrace this more. I need to take two minutes every day and just think about this. It’s cliché, and in danger of becoming trite in my mind. Oh, I never wish it so.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong.
Christians, let’s take a break from the political argument, the debates over theology, the culture war, all of it, and just think about this one thing talked about in the video below. It’s Christmas time, for crying out loud. Let’s be a little child.
By A Ransomed Soul 