Who Are You?

Who are you?

Please, don't tell me what you do or where you live.

Please, don't tell me where you currently live or where you were born.

Please, I'm not looking for your mobile number, Twitter ID, Facebook feed, Instagram handle, Tik Tok posts, or your blog address.

Strip away the surface junk and let's get down to the truth.

Who are you?

That's the real issue behind Jesus' question to the man afflicted with evil spirits: "What is your name?" (Mark 5:9). The power of evil had so captured the man that he could not answer and give his own name. He had lost his identity to the powers of destruction at work in his life. "My name is legion ... for we are many" was the answer given to Jesus' question.

Who are you?

It's a crucial question. How we define ourselves matters intensely to how we live our lives and live out our faith. Don't believe it? Take Legion's word on it. He had lost his identity and lived out his life in the most marginal and self-destructive of circumstances — living in burial caves, shrieking, cutting, and beating himself, uncontrollably wild, isolated, feared, and alone (Mark 5:1-5).

Who are you?

But if Legion isn't enough, look at the way the Lord's own temptations are couched, "If you are the Son of God ..." (Luke 4:1-13). The devil dangles the question of Jesus' identity before Him trying to get him to prove who He is — to himself, to others, and to the devil. If you are not sure of your identity, it doesn't take a lot to get you to try to prove your significance through selfishness, shortcuts, and showing off. The devil is not only in the details, but the devil is also in our need to prove ourselves.

Who are you?

It's the question of questions. That's why when we see the flow of grace outlined in Scripture, we see who we were without Christ (Ephesians 2:1-3 — we are saved "from" death by grace), we see how precious we are to God (Ephesians 2:4-10 — gifted with God's riches by grace and re-made as God's glorious handiwork), and we see what our mission is in Christ (Ephesians 2:10 — created in Christ Jesus to do good works). The biggest chunk of this grace equation? Our identity: we are bought by God's love, made alive by God's graciousness, blessed by heaven's glorious riches, and re-created in Christ to be God's incredible masterpiece of divine craftsmanship.

Who are you?

Our hearts are drawn to the tunes of grace and its power to give us back our real identity. We are moved by the story of the man liberated from the legion of demons, remade by Christ, now seated in his right mind and given a mission to do for Jesus (Mark 5:15;  Mark 5:19). We are drawn to it in the story of "Beauty and the Beast" as Belle's heart is won by the "Beast" and his sacrifice for her — and as her kiss brings him back to life, not just physically, but in every way. We are fascinated by it as the prince kisses sleeping beauty alive again, as the ugly duckling is transformed into the beautiful swan it has been all along, and as the slipper slides on Cinderella's dainty foot to show who she truly is.

Who are you?

God said it to His Son:

"You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22).

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation ... (Colossians 1:21-22 — emphasis added).

So who are you?

It's the only question that matters. It's the motivation for our behavior and the power behind our passions. We don't do what we do to get grace, to be approved by God, or to win heaven. Jesus died to bring us back to the real us: the us God made in the womb of our mother to be — God's masterpiece, His prince or princess, His beloved. The devil will do all he can to make us question it, doubt it, and work to prove it. Yet Jesus' sacrifice, the Cross and the Empty Tomb, stand and shout it to us. "You are My Father's Masterpiece! You, dear brother, are God's Prince! You, dear sister, are God's Princess! You are the beloved of the holy and awesome God Almighty.

So who are you?