Who are you? This is the most fundamental question when it comes to identity, and yet it is so tough for so many to answer. I know this because it’s been tough for me to answer. I know this because I look around and see people everywhere trying to find who they are in what they do.

The most basic question we ask when introducing ourselves to someone – what do you do? Our culture equates who we are with our function in society. I’m a salesman. I’m a plumber. I’m a conference director at Pine Cove. What we end up doing is seeing our identity as the sum of what we perceive that we bring to the table. This actually couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Peter’s interaction with Jesus in John 1 gives us insight into this issue of identity.

“He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas’ (which means Peter).” -John 1:42

Upon meeting Simon son of John, the very first thing that Jesus does is change his name from Simon to Peter. So often, we pass over this interaction, but what Jesus does here is incredible. Peter had done nothing to impress Jesus. You can’t argue that Peter somehow earned the name that Jesus gave him. Jesus “looked at him”, knowing full well all Peter’s weaknesses and frailties (as well as his future failures), and in that moment, Jesus gives him a new name. And in doing so, He gives him a new identity.

What is the lesson here?

Identity is something that is bestowed on us, not something that is earned.

This is the same exact pattern we see in the lives of Abraham, Paul, and many others in Scripture. God, in His grace, bestows a new identity on His people, apart from their own working. It is the same way with me and you. God gives us a new identity. If you are in Christ, you are adopted, holy, blameless, redeemed, righteous, and loved (Eph. 1:3-14). Not because you have earned that position before Him, but because He has given it to you. Sanctification is simply learning to live out of who you already are, by His grace.

Two good questions to ask yourself in this:
– Even though God has already given me a new identity, how am I still trying to earn it?
– How am I looking to other things to give me my identity, when God alone can give it?