Who Am I Really?

My friend Roger Peer would often answer the question Who Am I Really? in a way I have never forgotten.  In our men’s Bible study group which met weekly for over a decade, he would confidently and joyfully say, “In Christ I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, complete, and accepted.”  (I recall that he had read this phrase in “Search for Significance” by Robert McGee.)

This blog will tackle each of these “identity markers” as a full and wonderful response to the six-word phrase of The Merton Prayer which may be the most vulnerable part of the prayer: “Nor do I really know myself.”  Today’s focus is “In Christ.”  Each of the five characteristics flow from and depend upon being “in Christ.” 

So, what does it mean to “be in Christ”?  The little word “in” is a preposition which always indicates direction, location, inclusion, or activity.  We are “in a tizzy” with worry or fear.  We are “in route” to a faraway location for a vacation.  We are “in the living room.” We wrote a letter “in pencil.”

The word Christ, so well known, is simply a transliteration of the Greek word christos which means every time we say the word “Christ” we are speaking Greek!  But what does “Christ” mean?  Etymologically?  In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) the word christos is used to translate the Hebrew word mashiach which means “anointed one” even though every version of the Old Testament simply transliterates the Hebrew mashiach as “Messiah.”

The New Testament is filled with references to “in Christ.”  Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians with this: “My love to all of you in Christ Jesus” (I Cor. 16:24).  He closes his letter to Philemon with this: “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings” (Philemon 1:23). And there is this: “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ” (Colossians 1:19).

My answer to the question Who Am I Really? is that I am a human being created in the imago Dei, who miraculously now lives on earth inside a corporeal mass of bones, sinews, organs, skin, teeth, eyes, nerves, arms, legs, etc., while at the same time also living in Christ!  I am able to focus on Jesus Christ, listen to his words as recorded in the New Testament, and strive to always look for Christ in every interaction I have with other human beings. 

I often wonder how a person who does not live in Christ could ever have a significant purpose for living, and a meaning for their existence.  When I get up every morning, the first words which cross my lips are these: “this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it,” even if that day includes hurtful medical treatment such as radiation therapy for cancer which I endured for 8 weeks in 2017.

Who Am I Really? Christ is our “north star” which gives our lives direction, location, inclusion, and activity – all of the ways being “in Christ” functions for a Christ-follower. My hope is that you will be blessed richly this week as you focus on Who Am I Really?

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