Don’t Forget to Remember

So if holiness is the identity we live from and the calling we get to live out, how many of us are trying so hard to get something we already have? See, if you’ve given your life to Jesus, you are holy. You have been given the very righteousness of Christ. You have the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead living inside of you, sealing you, setting you apart for eternity. But a lot of us are stuck in this cycle of trying to earn affection and approval because we forget to remember our identity.

If you don’t know that 1 Peter 2:9-10 is who you are (holy, chosen, called, forgiven), you’ll spend your life chasing something you already have. And that’s exactly what your enemy wants. He would love for you to chase what you already have instead of stepping into the power and calling that you’ve been given. This is not a new concept. In fact, it was part of Satan’s strategy for deceiving Adam and Eve at the beginning. Watch what he says in Genesis 3:

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God …” Genesis 3:5 NIV

You will be like God, the serpent entices. But here’s the thing: Adam and Eve were already as like God as they could be! They were literally made in His image, formed by His hands, His breath was in their lungs, and daily they walked by His side.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 NIV
Satan tricked Eve and her husband into chasing something they already had: imago dei, the image of God. And we, as human beings, have struggled to remember who we are ever since.

And think of how forgetting who we are has distorted our view of romantic/sexual relationships. There is so much hurt and shame surrounding the subject. People go further than they ever intend to go because they’re stuck chasing the affection and approval they already have in Christ. They use their bodies as commodities and use other people the same way because of this warped idea of where our value actually comes from. It doesn’t come from what other people think about us, it comes from the image of God inside us.

So, when Jesus came, He had to remind us what it means to be human, and He did so by perfectly representing our holy God to the world. He restored our ability to walk out our God-given identity by healing our relationship with our Maker. It’s no wonder that the author of Hebrews challenges us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Because when we really see Him and who He is, we begin to see ourselves as we really are.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9‭-‬10 NIV

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:26‭-‬28 NIV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Genesis 3:1‭-‬10 NIV