[4 min read—client resource]
In part 1 of this post, we looked at how the doctrine of the image of God acts as the foundation for human identity. We all long to matter, and we are often consumed with trying to figure out what makes us matter. Is it something I do that makes me matter, or a quality I possess? The doctrine of the image of God brings us simple \ yet groundbreaking encouragement: You matter simply because you are made in God’s image, and the most important thing about you is that you are God’s child and belong to him. Our only hope in life and death is that “we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ” (New City Catechism).
If God takes faith the size of a mustard seed and grows it into a redwood, can he not take a life lived quietly and cause it to ripple its effects throughout eternity? Perhaps God meant it when he said that he gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). Our job is to remain fixed in our relationship with Christ, to draw near to him, to stand firm where he has placed us positionally in himself, in loving relationship and fellowship with the Triune God. Our call is to be like a tree planted by the very Source, the River of Life, the Stream of water himself (Psalm 1). And then God in his kindness and love will make us bear fruit in season and out of season. He is able to do abundantly with our lives more than all we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), simply because we are his children who were bought with a price in Christ.
In the same way that we often marvel at child-like faith, we ought to marvel at child-like identity. Children understand themselves and their identity in simple terms: they define themselves primarily by who they belong to. Without skipping a beat, if you ask a child who they are, they will first tell you their name, and then they will tell you who they belong to. “That’s my mom, and that’s my dad,” a child will tell you. Like our Icelandic friends so wonderfully demonstrate for us, children understand themselves in terms of who their parents are.
This brings up pain for some of us who did not experience loving parents. But God has the same thing to say to both those who had loving earthly parents, and those who did not. He calls himself “Father” to all who belong to him. In turn, we are his children. That is the foundation of all human identity.
When did we lose the beautiful simplicity of human identity? When did we start defining ourselves by what we do rather than who we are in the context of relationship? Again, the Scriptures have a central focus in defining our identity that is not so different from how earthly children define themselves. The Scriptures speak of human beings in terms of our relationship to God:
- We are created in God’s own image, to mirror him and be like him (Genesis 1:27)
- We are God’s children (John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, 1 John 3:1, Romans 8:16-17)
- We are his handiwork (Ephesians 2:10)
- We are friends of Christ (John 15:14)
- We are brothers and sisters of Christ (Mark 3:35)
- We are servants of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:22)
Notice that we are first defined as children, then servants. We serve God because we love him. We don’t serve him in an effort to make him love us. Secure children live boldly and bravely because they know they are loved, and a child who is confident that he will always belong to his parents is free to explore the world and find the unique role he fits to image God in the world. If you read through a book like 1 John, notice how often God’s people are referred to as “little children.” This is not by accident.
Even more, the Scriptures consistently describe humanity as sheep belonging to a Shepherd. This image is used often to describe God’s own people who belong to him in Christ, and the very image carries with it the idea of ownership. Sheep belong to a shepherd. They find solace and safety when they are with their shepherd. Of course, this image is used by God intentionally. In defining his people as sheep who belong to a great Shepherd, God answers our age-old question of, “Who am I?” with, “You are mine.”
Isaiah 43 paints this picture for us clearly:
“But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” (Verse 1)
Imagine what peace and security we would experience if we came back to this reality often. “Who am I? I am God’s child. I belong to him.” Notice that God in Isaiah continues to define us in relational terms:
“When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Verse 2)
Because we belong to God, he will be with us. He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20), the Overseer of our souls (1 Peter 2:25), and because we are his, he has promised to never leave or forsake us. As he says in John 14:18, he “will not leave us as orphans” (emphasis mine—notice that this image draws us back to our status as children), but will come to us again.
God continues in Isaiah 43:3, “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…” And in 43:4, “…you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you…” He is our God, our Savior, our Father who loves us. So who are we? We are God’s children, created by him and for him. We are loved and protected by him. We are his sheep, “a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).
Children aren’t asked to be born into the world—it’s a gift their parents give them (or really, that God sets into motion, sometimes without the parents’ consent). Who are we? We are children that God himself knit together in the womb of our mothers, that we may be his own children who can know that we are loved by him, and in return love him, crying out, “Abba! Father!” “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). Even if your own parents didn’t ask for you, even if your own earthly parents have rejected you, God has not. He created you, and he will take you in as his own (Psalm 27:10).
So again, I ask, “Who are we?” We are God’s children. We belong to God. Every other detail regarding human identity flows from this foundation. And if we are God’s children, we are “also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). And even when we suffer, we still belong to God, and as we have seen, he will never leave nor forsake us but will keep us firmly in his hand as his own children. He does not reject his own.
The world asks us to boast in what we have and what we do and asks us to believe that these things are what make us matter. But God says this about who we are and what our purpose is:
“Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 9:24).
You are God’s child. That’s who you are, and that’s why you matter. He can do abundantly more than all you could ever dream with your life, simply because you are his child and belong to him. Now that’s a life that matters.
“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21)