Where do you find your identity? Is it your job? Is it your role as husband, wife or parent? Is your primary identity a student? Do you find your true identity in your ethnic or cultural background? How about your sexual orientation? Maybe it’s your skills as an athlete or a craftsman.
As our kids were growing up, we definitely had and promoted a “family identity.” This is a healthy thing to do for your family and especially your kids. We would live it out something like this: “As a family, we do certain things that bind us together, that helps clarify our purpose and gives our kids stability and security in an unstable world.” For example, my wife and I would say things like, “Let’s go to the school grounds this Saturday and pick up the trash and clean up the area.” That project often was met with “Do we have to?” Our answer would usually be, “We are The Lehmans and that’s what we do.” The kids didn’t always appreciate that response at the time, but years later they, too, have a strong sense of family identity.
An aspect of the incarnation was that Jesus might identify with us and be merciful and compassionate to us. Hebrews 2:17 is clear. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
He became man so that He might save us first but also give an example of how to live. He called Himself the “Son of Man.” That phrase, found through the Scriptures, intended to show identification with “the weakness of mankind.”
If you are a Christ-follower, Jesus desires that we identify first and foremost with him. Our true, unchanging identity is found in Christ. Paul to the Ephesian church declares we are “in Christ.” Let our true identity motivate you. I’m a follower of Jesus. That’s who I am and why I do what I do.