Who Am I?

A new generation is preoccupied with the question of identity, and it’s getting complicated.

Any resource on identity will tell educators and young people that identity is subjective—meaning it comes from within their own feelings and sense of who they are. They are encouraged to define themselves by these things—even down to their lusts, passions, and desires.

That’s how we’ve ended up with a movement that unashamedly marches under a banner that says “Pride.” We can define ourselves by our innermost lust and celebrate it, indulge it, and hold it up as a compass for our lives. Sexualities, genders, personality types, and everything connected to the self are becoming our highest set of values. We believe in ourselves, pursue “my truth,” seek to be our best selves, and tell ourselves we’re worth it.

When I was growing up, we had an insult: “You’re so full of yourself.” People were ashamed to have that said of them, but to today’s audience, it almost reads like self-help advice! Our culture is taking on a rather . . . narcissistic flavor.

But is there something beyond the shifting sands of “your truth,” “my truth,” and “their truth” that secures who we are once and for all? What is the truth?

God’s existence confronts us with the reality that there is an ultimate, secure truth from outside ourselves that has something decisive to say about who each of us is.

The foundation of Scripture brings us a very different revelation about ourselves. We learn that we are created, not that we create ourselves; that there is a Creator who is greater than us!

God’s existence confronts us with the reality that there is an ultimate, secure truth from outside ourselves that has something decisive to say about who each of us is. We cannot escape this truth. We can only submit to it or rebel against it.

In my book, Who Am I?, I collect eight key truths from Scripture, like puzzle pieces, to assemble into a complete picture of human identity.

1. We are made by God (Genesis 1:26). We do not make ourselves.
2. We are made to bear God’s image (Genesis 1:27). There is a high calling on our lives, which involves putting God’s character on display through a holy life and righteous actions.
3. We are made with a breath of life directly from God (Genesis 2:7), which is eternal. So when our bodies die, our souls remain. We are eternal.
4. We are made from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). This means that even though we were made in God’s image, we are not gods. We are creatures—finite, lacking certain power and knowledge, and wholly dependent.
5. We were made for dominion (Genesis 1:26)—to bring God’s will to God’s world.
6. We were made to live up to a design as either a male or a female (Genesis 1:27). This is a calling on our lives.
7. We are fallen in Adam (Genesis 3, 5:1–3; Romans 5:12). Because of the fall, our identity contains sin and death. Our inner selves are corrupt. Our eternity is eternal damnation. This is the great tragedy of the modern identity worldview. It traps people in themselves. It traps us in our sin.
8. But we can be restored to glory and eternity through the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49), the true image of God in the “dust” of human flesh (Colossians 1:15).

Who Am I? contains rich and relevant reflections on these truths, ultimately guiding readers away from themselves and to the glorious person of Christ.