What is the role of the church in the world? In order to fulfill their purpose of reflecting God, the church must find their identity in Christ alone.
To learn more about the role of the church in the world from Chad Harrington, read his book with Jim Putman, The Revolutionary Disciple, which you can purchase here.
This blog was adapted from a sermon preached at Harpeth Christian Church, which you can view starting at 32:05 here.
As I look at the issues of our world today, the discussions of discipleship groups I’m a part of, and even in my own life, what continues to surface is the prominence of identity.
Let’s look at identity in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians to focus on the identity of the people of God as a group, the church. But first we need to address our identity as individuals in Christ.
The question being asked today, amidst all the cultural issues, is: Who are you?
- If it’s not about your sexual orientation, it’s about your biological sex.
- If it’s not about your race, it’s about your nationality.
- If it’s not about your socio-economic status, it’s about your intersectionality.
All of these things come back to identity. So I’ve been thinking about who we are in Christ specifically as the church. What defines us and makes us unique?
The world is trying to answer this question about identity, and answering it matters. And we need to offer critiques, but what is our positive response? What is our alternative?
If our identity doesn’t align with the values of the world, then what is our identity?
Most of the major issues causing turmoil in our country about identity have one thing in common: they are all surface-level issues. Sometimes quite literally. But there’s something deeper going on underneath the surface, and we as the church have the answer the world longs for, whether or not they know they long for it.
So my message is this: We must find our identity in Christ alone, together as the church and not in anything else, in order to shine brightly in the world.
The Challenge for Us: Knowing Our Identity
The major challenge for us apart from Christ is that we try to find our identity in ourselves, and this comes in two primary ways:
- Identity in what we do.
- Identity in how we appear.
Now I must say that I’ve struggled with identity in my life. While the name most people know me by is Chad, most people don’t know that my full name is Robert Chad Harrington.
Well, my first week at Ozark Christian College, I decided to ask everyone I met to call me by my first two initials: RC. I wanted a fresh start. Unfortunately, it was a terrible idea.
I thought it would be cool, though. So on the first day of class, the teachers called roll for “Chad Harrington,” and I said, “Here. But it’s RC.”
When I met people and introduced myself as RC, they always said, “RC, like the cola.” Man, didn’t think about that.
After a year and a half, I gave up and asked people just to call me Chad, which is what I had gone by for the previous 18 years of my life. RC just didn’t feel right, because that’s not my name.
Let’s just say I struggled with my identity.
It wasn’t just a name struggle; it was deeper. The name issue was the tip of the iceberg of a struggle with identity.
The Problem with Looking Within Ourselves
We struggle to find our identity especially when we look for it within ourselves only. As I mentioned, the two most common go-to answers for identity challenges are to try to find:
- Identity in what we do, or
- Identity in how we appear.
And the associated lies with each these are:
- You are what you do, and
- You are your appearance.
But both of these are about us and finding identity within ourselves, not in something bigger than us.
This week I thought of Michael Jackson, one of the greatest performers of our lifetimes, and his struggle with identity. I still remember where I was on June 25, 2009, when I found out he died.
We all know Michael Jackson underwent significant changes throughout his life to cope with fame and fortune. Doctors have verified on multiple occasions why his skin color changed from dark to light: he had the rare skin disease called vitiligo, which changes the pigment of skin.
So that change may not have had to do with changes he willingly made, but we do know he intentionally changed the appearance of his face. It’s reported by those close to him that he underwent ten procedures in his lifetime.
I don’t know the story of Michael Jackson’s identity or the nature of his faith journey, if he even had one, but what I can see in him is what I’ve seen in myself but in a different way.
He wasn’t happy with himself as himself, so he tried to change himself.
I don’t know if he ever found rest in who he was. We shouldn’t offer an ultimate judgment on Michael Jackson, especially by his worst moments, but we can look at his struggle with identity, and say we understand. My story’s not his story, but it reveals a very common human struggle: Who am I?
When we look to ourselves—what we can do and how we appear—we will always struggle to find rest in who we are.
So let me ask: How’s your journey with identity going? Another way to ask this is: Where is your locus of identity? Your gravitational pull for understanding who you are? What is the primary way you perceive yourself? Do you locate your identity primarily in:
- Your job
- Your performance
- Your appearance
- Your skills
- Your hobbies
- Your interests
- Your music taste
- Your family
- In another person
The easiest way to answer this is by asking what would happen if your identity were taken from you.
You might identify yourself as a teacher or a designer or a drummer or a dancer or an indie rocker or a family man or a thrifty woman. Or as a homosexual or a transperson—you name it.
Whatever it is, these are identity statements. And some of them may be true, so what’s missing here? What’s the issue?
These statements don’t get to the core of who we are. They’re external markers, and if we falsely let them take the wrongful place, we will become disoriented and out of sorts.
The problem with all these identity markers is that they’re things, not a person.
So walk with me through Ephesians 2–3 for the answer to the identity question we all long for at the deepest levels.
The Challenge for Them: Knowing Their Identity in Christ
We see our challenges today present even in the Ephesian community to whom Paul wrote. Check this out:
Ephesians 2:11–13: Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
What’s missing from almost all the conversations I hear today about identity is Christ, and without him, we’re left with a massive void in our souls. But even if we have him and don’t let him take center stage in our identity, we’re still left wanting.
As a result, we go looking to fill that void by modifying externals, by changing our job, by adjusting our appearance, our hobbies, our music. On a deeper level we might even change our community, our spouse, or even our bodies to fill the void.
But this is identity without Christ at the center.
The issues today are not about “gender” or what makes a man a man and a woman a woman. Those can be worthy discussions to have, but the discussion goes far deeper than that.
And what I’m concerned about for Christians is that we’ll get sucked into playing the world’s game, using the world’s terminology, and finding ourselves without an adequate alternative. Doing that would be like trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle using the game pieces of Scrabble. It’s just not the same game.
We have a totally different answer to the same challenge everyone faces, and it’s not found in ourselves but in Christ. So we should bring people into God’s reality, not play exclusively in theirs.
Christ draws us near to the Father, and God becomes the center of our identity.
Now, let’s back up to verse 11. Paul says, “Therefore, remember.” He’s reminding them about who they were before, to remind them of their change in identity. So he’s affirming the non-Jews of their new identity here, but he’s also speaking to the Jews because they had placed their identity on externals:
- 11: circumcision (physical): the Gentiles didn’t have the right appearance. This represents the three main Jewish external markers of identity: Sabbath, circumcision, and food laws.
- 12: citizenship in Israel (political): they didn’t have the right affiliation.
- 12: foreigners to the covenants (ethical): they didn’t have the right religious tradition.
So Paul levels all of that for both sides in one fell swoop: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”
It wasn’t that non-Jews needed to become Jews in these external ways; the nations needed Jesus. They didn’t need cosmetic changes to their lifestyles; they needed a core change to their identity:
They needed Christ.
Like them, in our search for identity, we don’t need to look for something else to do or something else to add to our identity. We don’t need any thing; we need a person, which Paul describes more fully in the next verse, showing us how this is not just an individual thing but also a group thing.
The Solution for Them: Jesus Christ
Ephesians 2:14–18: For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
They had been struggling with group hostility, but in Christ, they found peace. Today we see conflicts continuing to rage in the Middle East. Will there ever be peace? The answer for them is the same answer for us:
Apart from Jesus Christ, we will never find peace with each other nor peace within ourselves.
One implication of this is that we can’t expect the world to be at peace with us or within themselves until they have been converted to Christ. That is, before they can rightly understand the truth about who they are, they must be converted to Christ. For us, we can’t rightly place our identity until we’re reoriented to Christ.
We must fully accept the gospel before we can rightly accept ourselves.
Then God bestows identity on us because of who Jesus is, not because of who we are or who we’ve made ourselves to be.
Paul goes on to talk about the implications for us as a community by anchoring our identity primarily in Christ:
Ephesians 2:19–22: Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
First, you’ll notice the emphasis on the phrase “in Christ.” It’s in Christ, not in anything of ourselves that we find our identity as the people of God. Then I love that this says “being built,” not “having arrived.”
Because:
Learning to live in Christ is a process.
This process involves our participating with God’s sovereign hand, who builds us up to become what he’s called us to be.
So what’s the solution to the identity challenge?
The Solution for Us: Accepting Our Identity in Christ as the Church
This passage shows that in Christ everyone who comes to the table through faith in him is accepted as a full citizen and member of the family.
Track with me on this to the end because what I’m about to say needs to be heard in context of the whole.
God calls the church to be the most inclusive group on the planet.
When you look at specific Scriptures throughout the New Testament you get this picture. God welcomes us to the table regardless of our:
- Age
- Race
- Sex
- Class
And no other social entity in the world offers that type of inclusion. The world might:
- Accept you if you agree with one thing, but if you say the wrong thing, believe the wrong thing, or post the wrong thing, then you’re out.
- Even if they offer acceptance, it’s often just lip service—not true acceptance. They often don’t really know you; they just accept your category, your kind of person, or your application on paper. Externals.
They might let us into the event, into the sorority, or let us join the YMCA. But they don’t invite us into the deep loyalty, intimate fellowship, and lasting relationships of the church in Christ.
The only community on planet earth that can contain the breadth and the depth of the diversity of the people of God is the church.
The church alone, unlike any other organization, entity, or group, has the capacity to open wide the doors and welcome people from all walks of life into a transformational relationship with Christ and the church.
And we’re called to do that.
The world tries to offer acceptance, but at the end of the day it’s not deep community. Instead, it’s often faux inclusion, false advertising, or fake community. Only the church in Christ can live out the real community that everyone wants.
But this is very important because it’s the key difference and it’s hard for many outside the church to swallow:
God accepts us as we are, but he doesn’t leave us as we are.
The world has the first part right—acceptance—but they don’t want the second part.
The world looks to the church and says, “Why are you so exclusive? Why do you hate?” While some churches are exclusive and hateful and should repent, the truth is the world doesn’t know what to do with a God who accepts people as they are but also wants to change them to become holy like he is.
They ask these questions partially in ignorance but also because we’ve sometimes led conversations with the wrong thing:
- We’ve led with sanctification, not salvation.
- We’ve led with getting your life in order before giving your life to Christ.
- We’ve led with doing the right thing before becoming the right kind of person.
We wrongfully expect the holiness of Christ without the person of Christ.
What’s missing today in all these conversations about identity, identity politics, equity, inclusion, and acceptance looms large: the name of Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption.
In Christ, we accept those with external differences from us:
- The person who grew up differently than us
- The person who feels attraction to the same sex
- The person who is not native to our area
- The person who doesn’t make much money
- The person who is older than us
- The person who is younger than us
Any person who is different than us based on externals can find a seat at the table of which Christ is the head.
Our externals can then be put into their rightful place and changed if necessary. Because now Christ is our source of identity, and nothing else.
Like anyone else, we all need correct thinking, not only about who we are as individuals, but also about who we are together as defined by Jesus, who saves us and makes us holy. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about who we are; it’s about whose we are.
Until we’re found in Christ, we’re lost.
As my two-and-half-year-old daughter likes to say, “First things first.”
Salvation first, then sanctification.
The Purpose of Our New Identity as the Church
Once we’ve accepted Christ and have been accepted by Christ into salvation, we not only gain a new identity but also a new purpose in the world. It’s no longer about what we do, how we appear, or even what particular group we’re a part of.
It’s about being in Christ and making him famous—together as the church. The difference is we’re no longer focused on ourselves and our differences; we’re focused on Christ and point to him.
This leads to the last two verses in our journey through Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:10–11: His intent [in bringing together Jews and Gentiles] was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I love this passage because it reveals the amazing, cosmic role of the church in the world.
Now it’s helpful to know the phrase “in the heavenly realms” here doesn’t mean some place far off in the sky, but the spiritual realm all around us that correlates to our daily existence. So Paul says the church makes God known to the powers that be, both in the spiritual and in the earthly realms.
The image of the church is of a multi-faceted diamond refracting God’s glorious light into the world as it turns and reveals his diverse array of colors.
Each ray of light represents the masterpiece God has made us as individuals in Christ, and each glimmer of light represents the glory of God in us because of what Jesus has done in us—with Christ as the glory of God shining through us.
So while we have an identity in Christ as radiant individuals, when we combine together, the effect is astounding. That is what we have to offer the world together as the church. We live with Christ in us, the church, the hope of the world.
When we stand together in our identity…
Christ makes us shine as a radiant church in a dark world.
Let’s go back to Ephesians 2:13: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”
When it’s dark at night, one light can make the biggest difference, but what about a city of lights? It cannot be hidden.
I remember when I was a kid, and we’d fly into Calgary, Alberta, where I grew up until age eight. When we’d fly into Calgary at night, I was amazed to see the whole city lit up—from all the street and house lights together.
That’s what the church can be for the world. The world doesn’t need another collection of individuals doing their thing; the world needs the church in all her radiance shining brightly.
That’s who we’re called to be as the church. Now let’s live in it. Let’s find our identity in Christ and in nothing else.
To learn more about the role of the church in the world from Chad Harrington, read his book with Jim Putman, The Revolutionary Disciple, which you can purchase here.
