by Richard Lim
Have you ever been in an identity crisis? Have you ever woken up one day not remembering anything at all, not even your name. In the movie, The Bourne Identity, there is a man who was saved by a group of fishermen and when he woke up, he couldn’t remember his name and hasn’t got the slightest idea where he is from and where he is going.
As Christians, do we really know who we are? The Bible tells us that we belong to God. In Paul’s Letter to the Romans we read that our lives belong to the Lord: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:7-8). There are three reasons why we belong to God.
Firstly, we belong to God by creation. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen 1:27 KJV) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. (Gen 5:1 KJV)
Man is unique as compare to the other creations of God because man is created in the image of God. It means that we are intelligent beings with emotions and has the ability to reason. As image bearers of God, we are also valuable. In Matthew chapter 6 when Jesus was teaching about priority and putting the kingdom of God first in our lives, He mentioned that we as human beings are much more valuable than the birds of the air and lilies of the field. Matt. 6:26 “Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value then they?” Matt. 6:26. Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Indeed the soul of man is very much valuable than anything in this world! Matt 16:26
Man is also a two-fold being that is both physical and spiritual. In Gen 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. In Eccl. 12:7, it describe to us what happens when we die, “and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it”. Thus we belong to God because He made us.
Secondly, we belong to God by redemption. We have been bought with a costly price. Paul writes, “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). Apostle Peter tells us in 1Pet 1:18-19 “knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without spot, even the blood of Christ:”. That’s an incredible price to pay! What’s the highest amount of ransom that you know that has been paid for anyone? Again this high cost of price paid for redeeming our souls reminds us how valuable we are. Therefore because we have been redeemed, we are to glorify God with our bodies. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul pleads with the Christians in Rome, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Our goal in life is to glorify God in everything that we do. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Co 10:31.
Thirdly we belong to the Lord because we have surrendered our lives to Him when we obeyed the gospel. In Romans 6:1-23, Paul explains to the Christians that when they obeyed “that form of doctrine”, they are no longer “slaves to unrighteousness” but “slaves to righteousness”. We should “no longer continue in sin so that grace may abound”. When they were “baptized into Christ Jesus, they were baptized into his death?” It further states “that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;” and “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” We must live a changed life.
“But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1Pe 2:9-10.
The question for us all is do we REALLY know who we are and that we belong to God. Can we say as Paul says in Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
