From the beginning, mankind’s identity has been under attack. Your identity is under attack, your family’s identity is under attack, and the world around you is the consequence of this eternal battle.

Humankind’s first sin was caused by deceit, a lie shot right at the identity of Adam and Eve. In the first chapter of Genesis, we are told “God created man in his own image” (v 27) and this identity is where the goodness of mankind has found its way under attack today.

In John chapter 10, Jesus reveals His nature and the nature of our enemy. A life to the full is one fully aware of who they are, not one purposefully ignoring their identity. If our enemy has come to steal something from us, to destroy something, wouldn’t our identity, who we were made to become, be that target?

Have you ever thought that the most valuable thing about you, your essence and purpose, is your identity? Have you ever found yourself wondering who you were, why you are here, and what you are meant to do? All these feelings are common among all people and this is because we have lost our identity, or should I say, we have had it stolen from us.

A Unique Identity is Under Attack

The narrative of Genesis reveals that the serpent convinces Eve that she is can become like God and that all she needs to do is to disobey His commands to do so. But, as we are told in chapter one, Adam and Eve were already like God, made “in His image” and “in His likeness” (v 26-7). God said, “for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (2:17), yet the deceiver says the opposite, “You will not certainly die” that “you will be like God” (3:5). Who do we believe? Who did they believe…and why!?

What was Adam’s identity? He was made in the image of God, his purpose, as commanded by God, was to be fruitful, multiply, and to subdue the earth—its fish, birds, and creatures (Gen 1:28). What’s even better, for those of us hoping to find out our identity, is that God placed Adam right where he was supposed to work, the Garden of Eden, where an understanding of all of mankind’s identity can be found, the source of how we can move forward in knowing ourselves.

In the Garden of Eden, God placed two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:9). We know that previously to Adam being placed in the Garden (v 15) that God gave all seed-bearing plants and trees of seeded-fruit for food (Gen 1:29). The verse directly proceeding God’s placement of Adam into the Garden of Eden contains His first commandment, an interesting one at that.

Commands Are for Our Good

The character of God—referred to now (Genesis chapter two and onward) by His proper name, “YHWH” (you can learn more about His name here), is revealed in this statement. His goodness, mercy, and love for us is shown through this one command.

YHWH starts by reaffirming His original command to humankind—yes, this command to Adam is to all people for the word Adam means man, mankind, and human. YHWH follows this reaffirmation by adding an exclusionary clause involving the exemption of the Tree of Knowledge, a tree especially well-known by Adam since its location is right in the center of the garden, adjacent to another extremely important tree, the Tree of Life (Adam had to have known of the Tree of Life because it gave him invincibility but I’ll come back to that).

YHWH doesn’t hide this bad tree but puts it out for Adam to know exactly what not to do, and even better, He reveals His rational for the command, to save Adam’s life, revealing to Adam that his action will have a consequence, YHWH beginning to reveal one important piece of His character, justice.

Your Identity is Under Attack –  God’s Revelation of the Truth

How does YHWH react to Adam and Eve’s disobedience? Besides the cursing of the serpent—a Christophany, or foreshadowing, of Christ’s later redemption through Eve (Gen 3:15), the pain of childbearing for women, and the curse of the ground to cause pain and toil of man in his work, God also reveals a deep revelation about our future, our identity now and in the future.

YHWH reveals here who we were before disobeying His only command. We were eternal, but we didn’t know what was good and what was evil. Trying to imagine the existence of a living creature which knows neither good nor evil, one need look no further than towards their very own dogs. When I come home from work, my dogs are so excited, so eager to see me, so welcoming, joyful, and in-the-moment. Many would consider dogs to be simple, simple because they rely on someone else for survival, simple because they do not know the “truths” of survival, of pain, and evil in the world. We too were once in love with YHWH as our dogs are with us. We too can be like God, by ruling justly, mercifully, and in goodness. Learn more on how ruling our kingdoms is how we are called to be in the image of God, the imago Dei. It was never about decisions and morality, it was always about being a Father to creation as image bearers, as sons of a God who rules us and made us as stewards to the world.

We were once simple, without cares of good or evil, without the burden of survival but living eternally with their master, in His presence, completely joyful and carefree, only knowing love. Look where we are now as humans. How my heart breaks to think of YHWH’s heart, how we were once those children that lived as innocent as our dogs, those children that rejoiced every moment He was around, listening, yearning to hear His voice. Just think of the intimacy, the attachment we have to the love of these animals. We too were once that close with our Father God.

Leading to Life or Leading to Death

This duality of Trees, the one which brings life and one which brings death, is the most essential characteristics to our lives we must remember. There is a path that leads to life and that which leads to death (Prov 12:28, 14:12; Matthew 7:13-14). But what is so interesting about this path is that man has only two options, a dichotomy of eternity. We can live either as pure and simple children, eating from the Tree of Life, or we can live as rebellious children, knowing what is good and evil, the path which leads to death.

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, YHWH was forced to act justly and deal their consequences to them. YHWH could not allow both knowing good and evil and living forever. Does this mean that in the resurrection of the dead, in the transformation of our earthly bodies into heavenly bodies, that we will no longer be aware of good and evil, that we will be repaired back to our pre-sin state of living, and thus, living forever is without such states of good and evil?

Famous Christian Apologist William Lane Craig believes we will still be in a state of being allowed to do evil, still knowing what is good, but will not choose evil, that it would be impossible to do so, being in the presence of YHWH. No matter what the outcome is, the point is that we were made for unity with God through pure, simple, and loving work as we were before Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s commands.

How Are We Deceived?

When temptation came Eve’s way, her response was actually a misunderstanding of what God said, adding that not only shall they “not eat fruit from the tree” but they “must not touch it” either (Gen 3:3). Clearly, Adam, who alone was the one God gave His commands to—since Eve was not yet alive in the narrative (Gen 2:16)—did not place God’s commands as essential in the work and lives of his family.

If we are to build off the mistakes of our founding family, we must first recognize that: 1) knowing YHWH’s Word, 2) understanding Him, and 3) using wisdom to live out our knowledge from Him, are key to freedom from death.

Jesus himself used scripture to defeat Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness (Matt 4:1-11). Three times Jesus answered temptation by citing verses from Deuteronomy. At one point, He refutes scripture given by Satan himself (Psalm 91:11-12) using scripture again from YHWH’s law in Deuteronomy. It would seem that if Jesus’s identity was under attack and He required knowledge of YHWH’s scripture to refute wicked temptation, then we must need it too. Our identity is under attack, we must know who God says we are!

A Calling to Knowing Thyself

As followers of Jesus, we too must be strong in God’s Word, but we must also be strong in knowing Who YHWH is, and to know Him, we must understand His creation (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-20).

Jesus was able to walk in the Spirit of the Lord because He knew who He was (the son of God) and He knew what he was made to do. It has been said that one must consider the inner man to understand how free and righteous, as a spiritual being, one becomes¹. Imagine if Jesus did not know what he was made to do but knew He was the son of God. Would He be able to accomplish the purpose of His Father by being oblivious of who He is and was created to be and do? I think not. Actually, part of His glory was His fierce mastery in understanding His identity as the one who came to live as a sacrifice for humankind’s sins. Imagine if we as Christians knew our own individual purposes, how much we could endure knowing why we were made, how we were made, and how we, as individual creations, are unique. Would this understanding of uniqueness hurt or hinder us to submit ourselves to God’s will? Certainly not, for one cannot deny themselves without first knowing who they really are.

Recognizing Your Identity is Under Attack

Wouldn’t it be insulting to God to say, yes, although you made us unique and you spent so much effort and time to communicate with us and make us, to know every hair on our head and every characteristic of our being, that we would believe we are not worthy enough to get to know ourselves as intimately as He has cared to do himself?

But Isn’t Knowing Thyself Anti-Christian?

I believe getting to know the unique creation, the process of self-actualization, as Abraham Maslow’s seminal work discovered, is part of our reverence to God through thankfulness. If we were to just accept our existence but ignore what and who we are, just in the name of humility, this surely would be a false sense of humility, an attempt at underplaying the glory Father has bestowed within us. Couldn’t this instead be the work of deception by the enemy who wants us to not recognize the glory we were made to fulfill in our creation (Romans 8:28-30)?

It is interesting to me that God cares so much for who we are yet so many people believe they are not deserving of knowing the same person God knows, as if He made us so wonderfully yet wants us to never know a thing about His work. What if getting to know one’s self is actually a process of worship to the Lord, recognizing the unique beauty of His creation by seeing His work within ourselves. To say the actualization of one’s self is selfish by nature is saying getting to know God’s work and glory is selfish, yet one must recognize we were made to observe His creation, to give reverence to it, and to recognize that we as humans are God’s greatest creation, as He shows in His citing us as being “very good,” instead of just “good” in Genesis 1:31.

Peter tells us to use our spiritual gifts and in so doing we bring glory to God. How does one use their spiritual gifts if they are eagerly against seeking to discover themselves? Wouldn’t it be insulting to receive a gift from someone but never recognize its true potential, to never investigate, uncover, and test the gift, to master it through wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Speaking of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, how can one really have such qualities if they are unaware of who they are underneath if they are not able to know for sure their abilities, their loves, hates, pains, and glories within them. How can one submit these to God without first being aware of them?

If God created us in His image, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see the glory of that image, to recognize what it is to be a creation and an Imago Dei of the One true God? If God has placed such a high value on us as creations, why would we feel unworthy of knowing such creation unless we are feared into believing knowing God’s work, with the point of getting to know him better, is somehow sinful. How great a tactic of Satan to convince us that we are so unworthy of God that we cannot know ourselves, His ultimate creation.

Your Identity is Under Attack – Continued Learning & Defensive Measure

If you want to learn more on a world with an identity under attack, review how:

• Engaging culture is the mission, form, and function of the church.
• Responding to liberalism is the key to improving our current state of society and why neglecting to do so is largely to blame for the contemporary Christian environment we have now.
• Recognizing evolutionary thinking has ruined the west is the key to rebuilding our future.
• Knowing the symptoms of distruction will help your family stay strong throughout this spiritual war.
• Why law, morality, and ethics are dead without God…and why it matters!

References

¹García, A. L. (1985). Spiritual gifts and the work of the kingdom. Concordia Theological Quarterly, 49(2-3), 149-160.