Extreme Makeover: Identity Edition

Identity in Christ

Some of you may be saying, wait a minute, the last time I checked my purse, I had a driver’s license, social security card, movie rental card, and a pass to my local library. I have no idea what you mean by “identity in Christ.” Since this is one of those Christian phrases that is often thrown around, but rarely explained, let’s examine the meaning. Let me break it down for you.

Just as identification cards answer the question, “Who am I?” our God-given identity in Christ answers the same question. For example, my passport clearly identifies me as a citizen of the United States of America. Likewise, God’s Word clearly identifies me as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. With this new citizenship, the Bible declared that I have a new name, a new status, and a new purpose. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!” As a new creation in Christ, we are no longer identified as we were before; now, our identity in based upon and shaped by who God says we are as His children. -Marian Jordan

While I was reading what you just read the Lord gave me a picture a concept to help we grasp this truth more deeply. I love how God just knows us. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is one of my favorite shows hands down. Not to mention I have the slightest crush on Ty. But, the picture of what they do by tearing down the old house and building an new one is exactly what Christ did for us. He took away our old identity of sinner, and gave us a new one as dearly loved children.

In the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition ABC picks one family each week who in desperate need of a new home.(I love that because how desperate are we? Apart from Christ we have nothing. Apart from Christ coming into our lives we have no hope.) Many of them are living in unlivable condition. What I love is how Ty will usually take the owner of the home and take a walk through to see the home and the damage; to see what they are working with. (Ps 139:23-24 tells us " Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.")

Then Ty surprise the family with a much needed vacation, and sends them away for 7 days, and while they are gone Ty and the team along with hundreds and thousands of volunteers tear down the old house and build a new one. The home is always beautiful, but that is not what makes you cry, if you are like me, is the family's reaction. They are in absolute awe of the home before them. They no longer identify with the old home; they now have a new home to live in. There circumstances haven’t changed maybe, but at least they don't have to identity with their old way of life.

That whole picture I think paints a picture of what we have in Christ. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ and receive his gift of salvation we are given a new identity; but so many of us are still defined by our old “home.” How would Ty and the team feel after all the work, time, and love that went into building this family a new home, giving them a new way of life, paid for it, and all they have to do now is live in it and enjoy it; the family kept trying to live in the old house...

Well, how often do we do that to God? We have this new identity in Christ, but yet we still define ourselves by our past. "I have come that [you] may have life and have it in abundance" (John 10:10 HSCB) The past is gone, is has been “demoed” per-say. That old identity is gone and we have a new identity in Christ! God has given us a new identity in Christ. We longer identity with the old; like those homes that are built at Extreme Makeover, they are defiantly abundant, we have been give a Extreme Identity Makeover, and in Christ we have an abundant life filled with peace, joy, hope, and blessing! That is way better than any new home if you ask me. ;)