I just recently started reading Mark Driscoll’s book, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, which addresses the believer’s identity in Christ. In the introduction of the book, he makes a distinction that there are only two kinds of people, and thus identities, in the world: those whose identity is rooted in the first Adam, and those whose identity is renewed in the second Adam, Jesus. He then analyzes and compares the implications of the two identities.
The following blog will simply quote a passage and also record a couple of quotes in Driscoll’s book that I found to be particularly powerful. Here it is:
“The first Adam turned from the Father in a garden; the last Adam turned to the Father in a garden. The first Adam was naked and unashamed; the last Adam was naked and bore our shame. The first Adam’s sin brought us thorns; the last Adam wore a crown of thorns. The first Adam substituted himself for God; the last Adam was God substituting himself for sinners. The first Adam sinned at a tree; the last Adam bore our sin on a tree. The first Adam died as a sinner; the last Adam died for sinners.
We die in Adam but are born again in Christ: ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive’ (emphasis added). In Adam there is condemnation, but in Christ there is salvation. In Adam we’re cursed, but in Christ we’re blessed. In Adam there is wrath and death, but in Christ there is love and life.”
“I consistently see people who wrongly but earnestly seek to change their behavior rather than first understand their identity. But God knows that what you do flows from who you are. As Christians, we live from our identity, not for our identity. We are defined by who we are in Christ, not what we do or fail to do for Christ. Christ defines who we are by who he is and what he’s done for us, in us, and through us.”
“Either our identity is in Christ or in idolatry”
I’m loving this book so far–it’s awesome. I would highly recommend to anyone who is fighting idolatry and striving to rightly locate their identity in Christ, which is where God intends it to be in the first place since our redeemed lives cannot find identity elsewhere.
