Unfair Trade

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. — 2 Corinthians 5:21

Many long years ago, Dr. Fred McKinney was a professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri.  We were in a rather large lecture class listening to Dr. McKinney expound, probably on the psychology of personality, when a big German Shepherd wandered in through the open doors in the back.  The dog made its way to the front where the utterly unruffled professor launched into some remarks about animals in general and dogs in particular.  For one thing, he stated that, though understanding the logic of it, he could never bring himself to have a male dog he owned neutered.  "I suppose," he observed, "I identify with them too much."

We identify with our family, which makes sense, but we also identify with things that are more difficult to explain rationally.  We are all, I think, a little tribal in identifying with schools, towns, states, sports teams, political parties, and celebrities.  It's not a new thing, and it has always been a phenomenon manifested in religion.  Paul chided the church at Corinth in his first letter to them for adhering to personalities such as himself, Apollos, and Cephas thus creating sects and "dividing" the Body of Christ.   

Politicians, for all their interchangeable and disposable rhetoric about unity, thrive on tribalism and party identity.  Both professional and collegiate sports teams are able to rake in vast sums of money because of people who pay to watch and support "their" teams.  Everybody talks about supporting your church, buying locally, being community-spirited, being patriotic.  Veterans identify with their branch of service.  We seem to have some intrinsic need to belong, to tie who we are to someone or something else.  The point is not that these connections are  necessarily wrong, rather that they evidence an inherent human ability which God is able to use for our benefit. 

I quoted the well-known verse from Ruth a couple of days ago:  For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  Ruth was not only committed to helping her mother-in-law, she was going to cease being of Moab and become of Israel, specifically, like Naomi, of Judah.  Christ calls us to be "in the world but not of it".  As Christians, our identity need no longer be tied to the place we were born, who our parents were, where we went to school, or what we do for a living.

What is truly astounding and inconceivable is that we are able to identify with Christ because He identified with us.  He identified with us as humans, as sinners, going so far as to identify with our sin.  Look at what Ruth said and think about her words as foreshadowing what God did.  He said, "I will come down and dwell with you, and your sin will be My sin."  Ruth didn't get something for nothing when she identified with Judah.  She gave her love and loyalty but she also gave her child:  Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.  And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." 

As God steps in to identify with our sin, He offers us His sinlessness and righteousness that we might identify with it.  He offers us His Son's death that we might have His Son's life.  Through the death of Jesus, we become sons and daughters of God.  Identification has the power to completely alter the course of our lives, free us from the bondages of the old nature, and empower us to live above and apart from the world system.  


Helen Parr:   Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it.