Who You Are Is Defined By Whose You Are

"Who am I?" Few questions are more profoundly philosophical and profoundly applicable. Anthropology, the study of man, is the central area of division in our world. Some argue our identities are moldable and self-determined while others insist they are fixed and God-ordained. Behind every hot social issue is differing answers to the questions, "What does it mean to be human?"

In our day, the search for who we are is reduced to finding our "authentic self." The purpose of our life becomes the expression of this inner self we are meant to discover. But the problem with looking inside to discover our authentic self is we let the whims of the day become the winds of our future. It makes our identity a fluid stream rather than a firm foundation. It reduces our identity to our actions and affections.

The answer to life's most fundamental question cannot be found in what we do. If our actions become central to our humanity then we are nothing more than complex machines. Machines exist to perform a job until they can be recycled or replaced. Machines are only valuable as far as they can do their jobs. Humanity as utility means those without ability lose humanity and value.

But we know the most vulnerable are still equally as valuable. We don't cry when we lose machines. But we cry when we lose someone we love. We intrinsically know that our humanity and worth is not found in what we do.

Simultaneously, we cannot answer the question "who am I?" primarily by our affections. What we desire can't become our central identifier because desire, apart from a rational mind and soul, is primal. Asaph sang, "I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you" (Psalm 73:22). One of the things that makes us different from birds and beasts is our compassion and intellect. Basing our humanity on our desires makes us no more than animals. We don't live like the animal kingdom because we are not the animal kingdom.

What you do is not who you are. What we want is not who we are. Rather, who you are is defined by Whose you are. Our definition must come from outside of ourselves. It must come from our Creator. We need Someone who transcends us to define us.

In the opening chapters of Genesis, we read that God created mankind in His Image. In the ancient world, images were meant to represent a deity and tell the world what that deity was like. So, we are made in the image and likeness of God. We exist to represent God to the world and to show what He is like. Therefore, we are primarily defined by the One we image; not Him by our imaginations.

We are defined by our Creator. God says we have value because we reflect the One who is of infinite value. God says we are human because we are His special creation, unique from the rest (see Genesis 2:18-25). We are human because God says so. He is the Potter, we are the clay, meant to be molded as God desires not as we might wish to be (Isaiah 64:8).

Once we know who we are, then we can consider what we ought to do and what we ought to like. From our identity, all else flows. God defines who we are, what we are here to do, and what desires we ought to encourage and extinguish. But until we begin to see ourselves by Whose we are, we will never truly understand and live as who we are.

Behind every social issue of our day lies our answer to the question, "Who am I?" Far from an abstract philosophical inquiry, questions of the personhood of the unborn, the morality of various kinds of sexual expression, and the proper treatment of the vulnerable are downstream from the headwaters of human identity. Those headwaters must be filled with the freshwater of True Theology rather than the salt water of inner psychology.

We must ask ourselves, "Will I root my identity in the concrete foundation of God's truth or in the fleeting sands of human validation?" In a culture shouting for meaning and purpose, may our lives be a testimony to the transformative power of knowing Whose we are. It is He who holds the key to knowing who we are.