Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things. (ESV)

In the midst of this letter to believers in Ephesus, the author identifies himself as Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Gentiles. Until relatively recently this author was well known as Saul, the persecutor of Christianity. There is a beautiful irony in this.

‍

By God's grace and power, the jailer has become the jailed, and joyfully so. The irony continues as he declares that his God-given mission is to preach a gospel of salvation, adoption and inclusion to a people group formerly seen as excluded. The orphans are now sons and daughters, by God's grace and self-giving love. A great reversal, a sweet restoration occurs here. A new paradigm offered, a new identity outlined.

‍

Our former identity was one of following the course of this world, living in the passions of the flesh and by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3). But now we have been offered life even while we were dead in our sins; by grace we have been saved (2:4-5). Now we are called his handiwork (2:10) and members of God’s household (2:19).

As a human on the planet Earth in the year 2023, I have issues with my identity, specifically as a believer, my identity in Christ. To be honest, I often find myself in my day to day operating under a mixture of many identities, mindful of a multitude of ways I see and show myself.

‍

I seek desperately for self-uniqueness and do not quite find it. I long intensely for self-purpose and never quite possess it. I construct and perform an elaborate self-presentation and never feel comfortable behind the mask... All this under the hood of a pretty average guy.

‍

My natural human bent towards self-sufficiency combined with my need for identity places an unbearable burden on myself as well as on those around me. In my unbelieving state, I become enslaved by my thirst for identity and seek to enslave the people around me, to draw from the ones I love every drop of affirmation and appreciation, and again, I find I'm never satisfied.

‍

By contrast, God, as an overflow of immeasurable love and grace, gifts believers a true, durable and effortless identity that we have only to humbly accept. That is all.

‍

We are sons and daughters. We are his handiwork. We are born again with new hearts. We are in his hands and no one can take us out of them, including ourselves. We can find true peace in knowing that which we could never achieve was achieved on our behalf.

‍

This new identity is not self-generated, and it’s not aspirational. As we abide in his love, he guides us, and we walk in the light of our new identity, baby-step by baby-step. We are propelled onward and upward in true and lasting identity and purpose for our lives.

Lord, help us to rest in our identity in you. All the obstacles we face in doing so, we ask for your power to remove. Give us truth about ourselves and help us to live in it. Thank you for your Spirit of Truth. Amen.