This weekend our Community Group wrapped up our study of Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul Tripp. In that final chapter Tripp talked about self-identity and accountability. I thought them an odd choice.
That was until we met together, I showed a few clips from Cool Runnings to illustrate the points and it all began to click as we talked together.
“We always live out some kind of identity, and the identities we assign ourselves powerfully influence our responses to life.”
Often our sins or our afflictions define us. “My name is Fred, and I’m an alcoholic.” You could substitute sex addict, bulimic or any number of sins. We begin to identify ourselves with the patterns of sin in our lives.
We can also identify ourselves with our afflictions. For some time I assigned myself “Failure”. The church had “failed” and many seemed all too quick to assign that to me. I began to own it. Sometimes it starts with others assigning us the identity, but eventually we own it for ourselves. I could be “loser”, “wimp”, “handicapped”, “divorced”, “single parent” or any host of self-identities.
The point is that these self-identities shape how we view the world, including the actions of others. They shape how we respond to the world. We act like THAT guy. We begin to see everything through one of the identities we have- sexual addict, divorced etc.
Personal ministry seeks, among other things, to change one’s self-identity to a gospel identity. We want other Christians to live out the identity God has granted them- beloved child of God, valuable, saint, ambassador for Christ etc. We receive these identities by grace, not merit. They point to our position in Christ through justification and adoption, not our progressive sanctification. Our progress in sanctification actually hinges upon them (see Marshall’s the Gospel Mystery of Sanctification.
See what happens here. Junior is acting like a little boy, afraid of the bully in the yard. Yul Brenner confronts and encourages him. He sees something different than Junior sees. He sees “pride, power and one bad ass mutha”. He’s not making this up. By this time Yul has seen his former nemesis overcome many obstacles, including Yul to get where he is- an Olympic athlete.
Junior tries to act on this newer identity, but doesn’t quite own it yet. Again he’s intimidated by the Swiss bully. But his friend is there to support and protect him. THIS is the kind of accountability Tripp has in mind. Changing identities is not a simple, quick process. We need the continued support and encouragement from the community of faith- accountability. They remind us of who we are in Christ and call us to live that out (see how Paul does this in Ephesians, and Tripp uses 2 Peter 1:3-9 to illustrate this as well).
“Fight for joy, not by doing things that establish your identity with God, but by becoming what your identity already is with God in Christ. Become what you are.” John Piper in When You Don’t Desire God
I couldn’t find the clip on YouTube, but later in the movie Junior’s father shows up telling him to stop the nonsense and come home. He’s struggling as he faces the one who first assigned him the identity he’s been living out for years- little boy. In the back of the elevator is a mirror. He asks his father to tell him what he sees. Junior replies to obvious that he’s not a scared little boy, but rather a man. And an Olympian at that. He has owned this new identity and refused to live out the old identity.
After the door closes and the elevator takes away his confused father, the camera pulls back and we discover (with Junior) that Yul has been there the whole time.
Ultimately it is Christ who gives us that new identity. It is Him who is always by our side as we struggle to believe and own it, and therefore live it out. But Tripp makes the point that the means He uses is the Scripture, the Spirit and the Body. This is part of what Paul means by “speaking the truth in love.”
So, look in the mirror and tell me what you see.
Cavman Considers 
[…] The best chapters, in my opinion, were the ones dealing with Image/Identity and Community. Our sense of identity is essential to what we image. We distort that image with self-generated identities (addict, vocation, failure…) or identities forced upon us by others (victim, loser …). As a Christian we need to remember that Christ gives us a new identity. We are called to live out that new identity. But we are inconstant, our sense of identity will shift or fade. We need to be in Scripture regularly to keep our true identity in mind (see my posts on The Salton Sea and Identity and Accountability). […]