The concept that I wrestled with for many years in my youth was the idea of a Christian identity. The “words in red” taught me lessons on intentionality, humility, and universality, while the church taught me to identify as a church member, a believer of doctrines, and that there was only one way to understand Scripture. While I have since learned that the whole nature of dichotomies was a Satanic spin on Christian teachings (the doctrines of demons, so to speak), most people who identify as Christian aren’t actually followers of Christ, rather they are followers of a set of principles as determined by a pastor or church. While for many denominations this doesn’t necessarily create a conflict with being saved (as the doctrine of salvation through Christ is the only pillar that Jesus required), it does create a system of confusion that leads many to never understand what Christ or Paul were speaking about, as well as forms of legalism that make the gospel less attractive to the average person.
If one were to ask a random Christian what they needed to do in order to be saved, hopefully most would anchor in the belief that Christ died for their sins and believed he was raised again. Chances are, though, you will get a myriad of responses regarding traditions, rules, conduct, practices, philosophies, worldviews, and histories. Why is that? Just like the confusion of gender identity (and sorry readers, boys have a penis and girls have a vagina, your emotive response or perceptive preferences do not constitute new genders as if by saying you are gender fluid your genitals become like the Pokemon ditto), when you anchor a simple truth in perception, every different perception will create a new perceptive truth (view of reality). Essentially that is what happened in the course of Christian history, as the Christian message got tossed between the self enlightened Gnostics and the power hungry institutional churches. Needless to say, whether you take a more self/experiential path (like the Eastern churches) or a more tradition/institutional path (like the Western churches), you end up with thousands of individual or group interpretations of Christ’s message. So what is the true message of Christ? Why is it so challenging to find the truth?
It’s actually not. As we discussed in prior sections, consistency and bondage are usually the two easiest ways to kick out bad churches and teachings. Jesus in his most critical teachings (Sermon on the Mount, Olivet disclosure, parables) always used natural items to disclose truth, which often rested on evaluating intentionality, consistency, and living without bonds (in freedom). Paul often taught the same message in his epistles, as he struggled to release his own forms of identity (Roman, Jewish, priest, philosopher, etc.). Jesus, on the other hand, took a position of true vacation of identity often asking his disciples who they said he was, never taking glory for himself, and giving all to the Father. Jesus embodied exactly what he said in Matthew 11:29-30, “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” So if one were truly following Christ, would they label themselves by denomination (Baptist, Methodist, etc.), by traditional practices (baptized, sanctified, etc.) or even as Christian? Probably not, they would testify that Christ died to free them from bondage and start moving others to live freely and without a doctrinal label (like being branded like a cattle).
Following Christ has nothing to do with identifying as Christian, it has to do with adopting the way of life as Jesus taught. This involved having a humble heart, which is necessary to learn and to grow (also why God chose the foolish things). This also involved repentance and turning away from an old way of living or perceiving things. How can someone who is plagued by poor choices ever improve if they constantly return to the same poor choices, or the people and places that push them towards it? Or let’s take it a step further, how can you be God’s child if you are American (belong to America) or Methodist (belong to the Methodist church) or Republican (belong to the Republican party), or any derivative of the same? The world is who tells us to identify with groups, choices, allegiances, etc., and that is what binds us in slavery to those items. Jesus never told us to be Christian or in some interpretation of the following, but rather to anchor in God’s Spirit through the work he finished at the Cross. The practice of Christ’s teaching has nothing to do with dogmatic laws (love God/love others is it), traditions, or any of what he fulfilled, it had to deal with understanding your intentions and purifying yourself as best as you can (understanding that others should do the same, and you should encourage rather than judge).
I would encourage anyone reading these words to answer the following question, what are you planning to do today and why? I guarantee if you honestly answer that question, you’ll start seeing you are a slave to a whole bunch of groups, people, and ideas that are not necessarily in line with what you desire. Jesus didn’t care about money, nor did he cling to his family or Jewish identity, he merely gave all glory to God and identified as such. The irony is when you think about this topic, you’ll see the current church did a horrible representation of what following Christ truly taught. It’s really about living in true freedom in the Law of Love, which requires the absolution of identity rather the embracing of labels/identity. The freedom that the world currently teaches is freedom in the Law of Quid Pro Quo, which inherently lends itself to contradictions, hypocrisy, and other forms of breakdowns as intentions are not consistent from person to person. God, however, made everything self evident and unconditional, at least if Christ allows you to understand and you are willing to learn.
This topic is hard to explain because Christ taught us to abandon all forms of identity that the world labeled us, which would be more difficult for a rich man than a camel through the eye of a needle (why would one want to abandon status and privilege?). But the simple truth is that rich man is still going to die and face judgment, so I guess it’s not that great of an option either. I tend to embrace life now with the knowledge: “I am Josh, God’s child, stewarding those around me as best as I can until God takes what is His. Everything else is relative and without meaning, unless assigned by the relative judgment of another.” While this may not make full sense to the average reader, I hope you walk away with the understanding that Christ never taught us to live by identity, but rather in the Law of Love, which is much more simple and harder to grasp because the world has raised you since childhood to believe that identity and labels are what makes life.
