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I recently had a conversation with a friend, who said these quite profound words. “The world is confused about Christ, because Christians are confused about Christianity “.
The context of this statement was regarding an integrity decision that was to be made. While my friend struggled with what to do, upon seeing the situation in the light of God’s word, it was clear what needed to be done.
Have you every struggled with declaring everything on your tax return, or lying to your boss (though it’s a small lie), or even with regards to your spouse or your children, covering up certain things you have done. Over and over again we face these daily integrity choices. What would people think if ……? Wouldn’t I lose out if….? Are just a few of the questions that plague us as we decide whether to toe the integrity line. Remember the world is watching us ever so incessantly. Whether we realize it or not, the world wants to know if our identity is what we say it is. They wonder if we really believe that we are children of God. Though they cannot understand why we follow Christ, they definitely can understand inconsistent gaps in our claims to be Christ-like.
That is why the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Philippians,
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation
So why are we so confused? I think largely it’s because we are afraid. We are afraid of not having enough, being alone, not being accepted and so forth. Thus we constantly make decisions to lie, cheat, compromise so that we can allay our fears.
Fear however, has been deflated in our new creation identity. Jesus Christ, in going to the cross as a representative of humanity has defeated fear. Scripture puts it like this
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14
Jesus being made human faced and conquered the ultimate fear; death. Therefore all of our lesser fears fall in line to Christ’s overcoming claim of power over our lives
So then when we are we confused about our identity, it’s because we are afraid. So in touch are we with our old identity that we feel we will always be sinners, and thus we give in accordingly to sin. But that is all in the past. Sin is who we were like our first parent Adam, but now Christlike is who we are because of our new birth through Christ.
My friend closed the conversation by relaying how he went about sharing with family and friends, that we ought to stop being confused and start living as Christ.
Today, can be that day where you wake up to your true identity. Life, particularly in the pluralistic, multi-faceted western society we live in can be confusing, but yet, Christ has made it so simply, saying do not be afraid only believe
May the peace and clarity of God guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and may you have the courage to follow him wholeheartedly Amen.
– Pastor Olu Jegede