HUMAN BEING’S IDENTITY IN GOD

Question: Can a human being find his Identity outside God?

As a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, I will base my answer on his word. The question is about an existential relationship between God and man. Their distinct attributes are derived from their respective realms of existence. God, being eternal and being the creator of all that exists, the uncaused cause, his existence just is and his magnitude cannot be restricted or fully manifested in the created realm. A created realm is short in capacity, being restricted by time to fully host that which is timeless and in actual fact, the cause of time itself. He therefore is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is sovereign.

Psalms 90:2 ESV

“LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God”.

Isaiah 43:13 NLT

“From Eternity to Eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done”.

Revelations 22:13 NLT

“I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”.

Is there a name that can be ascribed to God that exudes his magnitude while wielding his sovereignty? Names have meaning and are potent. As his creation, there’s no name that we can give him that can comprehensively define him other than the one he can allot to himself.

Exodus 3:13-14 NKJV

“Then Moses said to God,” Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them,’ The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me,’ what is his name?’ what shall I say to them? ’’And God said to Moses, ’’I AM WHO I AM.’’ And he said,’’ Thus you shall say to the children of Israel,’’ I AM has sent me to you.”’’

How immense then is the name “I AM’’? Is it the most august of names to bear his magnitude? My simple answer is Yes. In the existential relationship, there is no way of referencing a being without first recognizing God; His being. When I say ‘’I am Mbugua’’, I’m first recognizing his substance before mine. My being is only made possible in his and by his. All the subject pronouns (I, we, you, she, he, they, it) recognize his quiddity before referencing another being.

Colossians 1:17 NKJV

“And he is before all things, and in him, all things consist”.

Ecclesiastes 6:10 NKJV

“Whatever one is, he has been named already, for he it is known that he is man; and he cannot contend with him who is mightier than he”.

1 Corinthians 8:6 NKJV

“Yet for us, there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live”.

God (I AM) is the primary identifier for a human being and in fact, all his creation. Everything else is secondary being given weight by the emphasis or value placed on it. In defining ourselves, we cannot exalt a secondary attribute above the primary. Deriving our identity solely on secondary attributes is selling ourselves short as the secondary obtains its credence from the primary. The exaltation of a secondary attribute e.g Race, tribe, culture, etc seeks to relegate God to a lower status than he is and is in express terms idolatry.  Using the car Make, and model analogy, if you present a Prado, Vitz, and a Harrier to me, the first observation is that they are all Toyotas and no matter how different, there’s an inherent value or otherwise of each being primarily a Toyota.

Man, having been created in the image and likeness of God, cannot have an autonomous identity as he derives his substance from the creator. He enjoyed unhindered communion with God in his first residence at the Garden of Eden. With obedience, he was to experience the ultimate life in God’s presence. The only thing forbidden was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There have been many commentaries about the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In my view, the knowledge of good and evil is merism.

Merism is described by Wikipedia as a rhetorical device (or figure of speech) in which a combination of two contrasting parts of the whole refers to the whole. For example, in order to say that someone “searched everywhere”, one could use the merism “searched high and low” or “near and far”. In the same manner, knowledge of “good and evil”, represents vast amounts of knowledge that man independently had no capacity to handle without God and much of which he did not require for his assigned dominion on earth. Forbidding it from man was a way of protecting him from the consequences of its misapplication. Think of it this way, you have a Ferrari, would you entrust it to your six-year-old son? The lie was by having these vast amounts of knowledge, man would become god / like God and thus wouldn’t be reliant on God. Can one really be independent of one whom he owes his existence & essence to? The desire to exalt himself to the level of God amounted to a form of self-worship which is idolatry. It is the same lie perpetuated by some cults and secret societies that claim to have hidden/secret & exclusive knowledge of God, enlightenment, and the spirit world. This is a discourse for another time.

Isaiah 48:17 NLT

“This is what the LORD says-your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow”.

For man to live in perfect harmony with God, he has to adopt God’s nature in whom his identity is anchored. God’s nature is Holy & sinless and therefore man has to maintain the same. In obedience, man projects God’s nature in his dominion over the earth, therefore, achieving optimality. Before sin, access to the tree of life was unhindered implying that sin remains the barrier to God and eternal life. Sin resulted in eviction from the Garden of Eden and spiritual separation as had been forewarned. It basically robs us of the benefits of our full identity in him.

Genesis 3:22-24 NKJV

“Then the LORD God said,” Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life”.

The sequel of the detachment is evident throughout mankind’s history. Severing the spiritual connection would only hinder man’s discernment of God’s will without which he would falter in his dominion and sin would only escalate. Indeed, shortly after in Genesis chapter four, Cain murders his brother Abel. Just a few chapters later, God is already contemplating extinguishing man from the face of the earth. By man detaching himself from his primary source of being, he was practically misinforming himself in the ways of his ultimate life as his operational manual/blueprint was with the creator.

Genesis 6:5-7 NKJV

“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD”.

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Man’s disobedience in his pursuit for autonomy severed God’s presence in our lives. Human beings ended up adopting and exalting secondary attributes that they built their identities around e.g race, tribe, social status, religion, culture etc. Without the recognition of a common identity in God, morality would suffer. Relative morality is a pantheistic ideology whose results in humanity is chaos. Humanity having a common descent from God must also have a common unifier to him. The separation being spiritual, re-unification must also be spiritual.

God has provided a way for restoration through Jesus Christ. Humanity must in turn do its part. Recognize that sin led to the initial separation and be born again of the spirit through Jesus Christ. He is the common unifier regardless of race, tribe, social status, etc. The Holy Spirit dwells in every believer and thus God’s presence. It is therefore a matter of how much you yield to him that determines how much of his presence you enjoy. In his presence, God’s nature manifests in you. You reclaim and revel in your true identity….as a child of God.

John 14:6 NKJV

“Jesus said to him,” I am the way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.”

John 1:12 NKJV

“But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name”.

Ephesians 1:5 NKJV

“Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”.