Companies appeal to identity to sell you stuff. Candidates tailor messaging based on their notion of who you are. People don’t call it a “sex life” anymore, they call it “sexual identity.” Being L, G, B, T, Q, or + in our culture functions as an identity marker, not just an expression of gender or sexuality. Identity is woven into nearly every part of our society today.
Carl Trueman calls our collective understanding the “social imaginary” in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. The twenty-first-century American social imaginary assumes all sorts of things about identity. The common belief is that you look inside yourself, decide who you are or what you want to be, and then express that identity to the world. So much of our social interaction then gets funneled into one of two categories: affirmation or rejection. No wonder everyone’s so angry with each other. We no longer discuss and debate. We accept or reject each other.
Jesus calls you higher! Just as he took the question about taxes higher in Matthew chapter 22 – he embraced neither the framework nor the fight set before him. Instead, when he said: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Matt. 22:21, NIV), he invited his hearers to transcend their social imagination.
Jesus offers that same invitation today. Will you accept the culture’s framework? Or will you embrace a heavenly perspective? God personally bestows identity. You bear his very image (Gen. 1:26-28). Christians: you are born of God (John 1:12-13), he chose and adopted you (Gal. 4:4-7), and he chooses to dwell in you as his living temple (1 Cor. 3:16).
Christian sexual morality is not rooted in rules! Our sexual ethic stems from our identity! That’s why the Bible says to flee sexual immorality. Not because it’s a religious rule – because you are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:18-20). Because Jesus suffered and died to make it so! You are forgiven, cleansed, and made into a holy dwelling for the Lord. What a blessing! What an honor to make it a dwelling worthy of his presence! What amazing grace that we can be restored when we fail to do so!
As we consider identity and engage in our culture, let’s be voices that transcend. Let’s join Jesus by inviting our neighbors higher. Every person you meet beautifully bears the image of God. Let’s build bridges of lovingkindness that lead them back to him.