The Jesus Code Who Am I?

The Jesus Code

Who Am I? -
Exodus 3:11
Who am I…?” The stuttered question was spoken through dry lips.
It had been business as usual on the backside of the desert. Moses had been
leading the nomadic life of a lonely shepherd for forty years now. This
morning
was no different from the thousands of others in his experience—or so he
thought. Had the late Walter Cronkite been reporting this event we would
have
heard those oft repeated words, “And this has been a day like any other has
been…except …you were there!”
Try to imagine Moses’ absolute amazement as he witnessed a nondescript
little bush on fire, yet not being consumed. Then the voice of God came from
the
bush and commanded Moses to return to Egypt, stand before Pharaoh, and
demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. No small task! And Moses’
immediate
response was “Who me? Who am I? I can’t speak well. You must have me
confused with someone else!”
This is a completely opposite response to Isaiah’s response to God’s call
which we will see later in chapter twenty-one. Isaiah said, “Here am I! Send
me” (Isaiah 6:8).
Listen to Moses as he responds to his call, saying: “Who am I to do that
job? You need to send someone else!” Even though Moses had been educated in
the finest private schools of the most progressive nation of the world, forty
years of isolation had taken their toll on his self-confidence. Forty years
alone
will lead anyone to ask, “Who am I?” Yet Who am I? is an appropriate
question for each of us to ask ourselves.
Moses epitomizes one who is suffering from a poor self- image and little
self-confidence. Unfortunately, many believers today spend their lives
posturing from a low self-image.
Proverbs 23:7
reminds us that as a man “thinks in his heart, so is he.” I am not so
idealistic as to think that in reading this brief chapter a lifetime of low
self-image
can be translated into one that is healthy and positive. However, I am
emboldened enough by my faith to believe that new thought patterns can begin
to
replace the lies and enable you to find your self-worth in your position in
Christ. So who are you really? Let’s find out.
An Explanation
Who am I? The Bible reveals that we are a composite of “spirit, soul, and
body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
However, note that we don’t phrase it in this order. We generally say “body,
soul, and spirit.” This, subconsciously, is because we are so body
conscious,
and that painful awareness too often determines our evaluation of who we
really are. After all, the body is visible. We pet it and pamper it. We tan
it and tone it. We measure it and weigh it regularly. But one day it will go
right back to the dust from which God created it.
We are not just bodies, though. Our soul is the seat of our emotions. It is
our feelings about ourselves that too often dictate our own self-worth, or
lack thereof. Our spirit is that part of us that will live as long as God
lives. It is our spirit that connects with God’s Spirit—spirit bearing
witness
with Spirit that we are His children. So who am I? I am a spirit-soul… I am
just living for a few short years in a body.
The marketplace is loaded with books and videos on self- image, and most of
these deal only with the physical side of our being. They tell us how to
dress
for success. They have clever formulas for obtaining the upper hand in
relationships. They focus on weight loss and other aspects of our physical
appearance.
Then there are those that focus on the soul, on the realm of emotions. These
resources tell us things like how to win friends and how to keep hold of our
emotions so that we can obtain influence and advantage over others.
But I am not my body, and I only have a soul. I am a spirit. Therefore, the
Bible is the best self-help, self-awareness, self-image, self-confidence
book
ever written because it explains who I really am. Again, who am I? I am a
spirit made in the very image of God.
An Illustration
Jesus illustrated this very point for us in Luke 16 with the story of a
beggar and a rich man who both die. Lazarus, the beggar, died and was
carried into
“Abraham’s bosom,” the Hebrew representation of heaven (v. 22). His body was
in the grave, but he was in the bosom of Abraham. Why? Because Lazarus was
a spirit, not a body.
And the rich man? Jesus said he ended up in hell. So his body was in the
grave, but his soul and spirit were still alive. He could still remember. He
still
had emotions. He was tormented. And he was troubled about his brothers’
destiny. This rich man’s five brothers did not know God, and now banished in
hell,
this rich man knew that an eternity of punishment for their sinfulness
awaited them.
Our only means of truly knowing God is by our spirit. It is impossible to
have a spiritual relationship with Him based on mere human knowledge. As
Jesus
said to the woman at a well, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
Without a relationship of spirit to Spirit, you can never know God because
“the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
So when you ask, “Who am I?” know that you are spirit. That is your real
identity and the seat of your self-worth.
An Application
Since we human beings are in essence spirit, we cannot depend on the
physical for a proper self-image. The clothes we wear and how we look should
not determine
our self-worth. Neither should our emotions—the soul part of us—determine
our self-worth. All the positive thinking and pumping ourselves up, all our
taking hold of our emotions will never provide a healthy or accurate sense of
worth. Each of us must discover for ourselves who we really are: a spirit
being led by God’s own Spirit (
Romans 8:14).
Only in the Person of Christ in us will we find true self-worth.
Finally, back to Moses. This timid, stammering, reluctant Moses went away
from that burning bush to become the great emancipator of God’s people and
the leader of a great nation. This same man who began by asking, “Who am I?” is
last seen in Scripture on the Mount of Transfiguration amidst the glory of
Jesus Himself.
Understanding who he was because of God’s power and grace gave Moses
confidence and strength for the task he was called to do. Similarly, when
our spirit
connects with the Holy Spirit, then we will have an accurate and healthy
self-image, for “Christ in you [is] the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
Q & A: “Who am I?” No one on the planet ever has or ever will have DNA
exactly like yours, and you, in all your uniqueness, are indescribably
valuable
to God. So remember that you are a spirit . . . simply living in a body for
a short time. And I am convinced that if we fed our spirit as much as we
feed our bodies, we would realize who we really are, and a God-given positive and
powerful self-image would be ours. “Christ in you [is] the hope of glory!”
(Colossians 1:27).
This devotional is drawn from
The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer
by O.S. Hawkins