LET US LOOK AT GOD: WHO IS HE
To find out the true identity of something/someone, you have to start with the original/origin. In Exodus 34:6-7, God fills out His own birth certificate and describes to us who He really is. It is this self-description that is referenced time and again for the rest of Scripture. This is the identity that ought to shape our lives. Our lives or our witness ought to be shaped by the true identity of God not our identity. Our lives are not to be shaped by what's in style or what draws a crowd, but rather by the true identity of God. Hear these words about God's true identity (Ex. 34:6-7, NIV).
Read: Exodus 34-6-7 6 The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh![a] The Lord !The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.7 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.”
He starts with "The Lord, the Lord" or "Yahweh, Yahweh El." God begins by reciting His own name twice followed by "El," the biblical designation for "Deity." This is the only place in the Bible where this repetition is found, but it serves two purposes.
1. It causes us to pause and take notice as He announces His name twice. This is to emphasize the name of God and reminds us of His name "I am that I am" (e.g., Martha, Martha; Peter, Peter).
2. It connects us back to the first description of his name with Moses in Exodus: "Moses, we have had this same conversation before" (vv. 3:13-15).
He restates the name He had given to Moses already: "I am was. I am is. I am will be." He doesn't stop there but then begins to unpack what the "I am that I am" means.
Compassionate and Gracious God.
Loving and Faithful God.
Forgiving and Just God.
Read: Ephesians 1:5 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure
God gave as an identity that is rooted in His sacred truth granted as stated in the Bible. As such, we are not left with the freedom to act independently to try figure out who we are. He has constructed our self-identity and provided us with divine revelations that explicitly shapes our understanding of the self. God reveals that all if us are people are created in the image of Him. In part, this means that humanity is ultimately designed to bear God’s image, be like Jesus and to magnify His glory. This is most evidenced when we live out the call of Jesus to love the Lord with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:13-21
He also shaped us by His redemptive narrative of the Gospel as viewed through the themes of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. As God’s Creation, all of humanity was perfectly designed to worship Him and love him. As we were subjected to the Fall, all people now bear the identity of sinner since the heart resides in a state of death wherein people place self at the center and are no longer concerned with God’s glory. A person in this state is identified as condemned. As partakers of Redemption, by grace, a person is enabled to place faith in Jesus Christ, at which time sins are forgiven and due to God’s mercy, the identity of condemned is replaced with the identity of redeemed.
God securely made us and see us rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Though still prone to sin, wander and rebel, His gift of the new self is no longer ultimately identified by sin, but by what Jesus has accomplished on behalf of those who place faith in Him. This identity (who are are) is gifted to us by God and cannot be earned by good deeds. Since all those who put their trust in who God is and who they are (the Believer) become united to Jesus by faith, all that is true of Jesus becomes true us them. Therefore, in Christ, the Believer is holy, perfect, righteous, accepted, approved, valued, and loved by God.
Who we are is continually being transformed by the Holy Spirit. Though considered perfect, righteous, holy, and loved in Christ, God is also committed to working in the heart. This work is actually to create perfection, righteousness, holiness and love in the inner man to progressively resemble the character of Christ through and through. This transformation is ongoing and lifelong and will find its completion at the conclusion of this earthly life.
God the Father who is using every situation or circumstance in life, both joyful and distressing, to conform those who trust who He is and who they say He is into the image of Jesus to assure completion to the new self. He uses This transformation to rewire the heart to align with His heart, and places Jesus as center of all things. His workings progressively restore humanity to operate by its original design. The original design is journey and growing with yearning to love God and others becomes to the end that it becomes our purpose, central motivation and joy of life.
His Grace and Peace Be with you!