“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
We hear much talk these days about people choosing who or what they will “identify as.” And the identities range from the ridiculous to the sublime. But, the question is this. Where does the need to identify one’s self as anything other than what we are by birth? Are not all human creatures created in the image and likeness of God? Does not the Scriptures tell us that in the beginning God created Man, (all humankind) male and female?
The answer is evident. Yes, He did. There are only two kinds of human beings, male and female, man and woman. So, from where does this need to seek a different identity come? First, we must realize that this is nothing new. It may be more evident and even more openly discussed and contemplated today, but it is not new.
From the time of man’s fall from his place of perfection and immortality in the Garden of Eden with God, where he was in perfect union with all creation, his disobedience, fostered by the seeds of guilt and sin, has driven him to loathe and be in conflict with himself. So he strives for something to restore his ascendency over his fallen condition, his sinful self and all of its brokenness and baser yearnings and passions that only torment him and hasten his death.
His salvation from this body of death can only be found in being reunited with the One who created him. And only in that restored relationship can he once again find his true identity. All other attempts to “identify as” anything other than what God created him to be will ultimately fail him, whether male or female.
Though we hear of those who seek to “identify as” a gender other than they were born is an attempt to repair what is broken in their lives because of sin. Even a child at the age of self-awareness can be confused about their identity if they have not been taught to know and appreciate that they are fearfully and wonderfully created in the image of God, but because of sin, not their own, they are made easy prey for the haters of God and the rulers of the darkness of this world to corrupt, abuse and destroy as they please.
All the more reason that children must be taught to love God at an early age and be brought up in His nurture and admonition in order to rightly identify themselves in the image and likeness of God their Creator. To fail to teach them the truth is to leave them open and helplessly vulnerable to all the darkness and deception of the enemy, self-hate, grief and failure to find true fulfillment and purpose in life. So they seek to fill that void by human wisdom alone, with no regard for God, adrift in a void of self-indulgence that leads to their destruction. Some now even submitting themselves to mutilation by the hubris of man’s pretense to godhead by undergoing gender reassignment. Foolishness and confusion!!! God alone created man! No man can create himself nor can any man reassign the gender of one whom God created to be male or female.
Medicine and science have made astounding discoveries working with the knowledge that God has given to men in the fields of healing and restorative methodologies for the human body. But the soul of man can only become alive by the breath of God. Man’s true identity can only be defined by His submission to the One who created him.
To be crucified with Christ is to lay aside all identities except that wherein we were born physically. and then be reborn as a new creation in Christ Jesus. In him alone, gender, both male and female, is secondary to the identification we have as those who belong to Christ. So called, trans-genderism and same-sex marriage are sins and anathema to the Holiness of God. They are merely other attempts among the myriad of things man reach for in their futile attempts to find their true identity apart from God through Jesus Christ.
But hear the Good News! The power of God to heal and to restore any soul, no matter how far they have strayed from the call of His grace, is available to whosoever will believe it and receive it. His love and compassion will always welcome the broken and contrite heart who comes to Him to find the Way, the Truth, and the Life that is freely given to all through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, Lord and Savior. In Him alone is salvation and in that salvation we all find our true identity as sons and daughters of God Most High.
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:27-28
What this means is there is no favored distinction made between these human identities in the kingdom of God. All are treated with the same love, compassion and grace. In no way are we morphed into some unidentifiable ooze of unrecognizable, undefined identity. Christ is fully God and fully man. As a human being he was born a man. He lived and died as a man, but He was raised and in corruptible spirit still with the recognizable and identifiable body of a man, to save and redeem all humankind, reconciling all men and women to God, and removing the curse under which the whole world was condemned because of sin.
God’s design for His creation of mankind is unique and absolutely His exclusively to fashion and restore or to destroy. Woe unto those who seek to exalt themselves above God and establish their kingdom above His throne and seek to remake man in their corrupt image.
But blessed are they who trust in the Lord with all their hearts and lean not on their own understanding, but in all their ways as they acknowledge Him He will direct their paths. [Proverbs 3:5-6]
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
We who belong to Christ now identify as His sons and daughters, His children, born again not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God. [1 Peter 1:23]