Our culture is hyper-focused on individualized identifications and distinctions. There is an endless factory of labels, categories, and specialized names in order to make room for proper representation for all. This can lead to major identity mishaps, devoid of Jesus. 

However, we cannot claim Christ and something else. It’s one or the other. It’s the symphony or the silence.

When we claim anything outside of Jesus or in addition to Jesus, we might as well be sitting in silence. 

When we claim union with Christ—well that’s like being in the first row of the balcony. . .the most coveted seat at the symphony.

Who do you think you are?

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Either get a sheet of scratch paper, or just think through this quickly. 

Write down who you think you are. On your best day?  On your worst day? What do you crave? What do you pursue? Because what you think about yourself is important. 

I mean, if we are supposed to be beholding the glory of the Lord, transforming into glory, then I think we should check in with how that is going. 

However, when I started thinking of my own beholding habits, I didn’t quite know where to start. 

I’m in a Bible reading plan, I’m in corporate worship and accountability weekly, I’m teaching my children about the Lord. . . 

So—would I be considered “good” then? I mean, if I honestly look at that verse, I don’t typically  feel like I’m being transformed. I don’t feel glorious—honestly, before studying this, I didn’t even know what that meant. 

Most of us have heard the A.W. Tozer quote: “What you think about God is the most important thing about you.” And I still hold that to be very true. 

But in a time of our culture of “you are enough,” with full on head pats of self-confirmation and affirmation—what you think about yourself is also important. In fact, it is impossible to separate what you think about yourself from what you think about God. I would argue that you cannot say that you have a high view of God, yet perpetually beat yourself up over “not trying hard enough” that day. 

First, know God 

Read 2 Corinthians 3:18 again:

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

First we know God then we reflect God—that is what it means to behold him. Once we reflect him, we will want to know him more. This cycle will cause us to transform into glory. 

But knowing him is crucial to our faith and obedience.

We have to know both God’s character and personhood. John Owen says we often look at God’s goodness only as him giving us Jesus as a way out of sin and death—however, that is his “communication of love”—his goodness, and all goodness, flow from his very personhood.

• He is the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:3)
• He is a quiet whisper (1 Kings 19)
• He is the upholder of my life (Psalm 54)
• He is just and the justifier; the alpha and omega; the overseer of my very soul; he is my rock, my redeemer, my righteous judge; he is the revealer of mysteries, the ruler of kings on earth. He is trustworthy, tender, patient, perfect, kind, merciful, compassionate, a consuming fire, blameless in his ways, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest seas…

Consider Eve’s instability

It is pivotal that we know God and likewise grow in that knowledge.

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

2 Peter 3:17-18: “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

God has given you everything you need for life and godliness, but it’s through the knowledge of him. We have to know, like literal head and heart knowledge, who our God is. According to that 2 Peter 3 passage, we get carried away by the world, losing our stability in the meantime, when we are not growing in the knowledge of Jesus, again both head and heart.

It seems rudimentary, however, but we must be feasting on God’s word daily in order to truly know him. This is how the Lord has revealed himself to us. Reading it once through does not suffice.

Think of Eve; she heard God’s commands (a do and a don’t, Genesis 3:1-7) and yet Satan “…dislodge[d] Eve from the clarity of God’s Word…the authority of God’s Word…It was an attack on God’s character” (Sinclair Ferguson, “The Whole Christ” 80). When she stepped away from the knowledge of the Lord, she lost her stability. 

When she stopped beholding God and his word, she naturally just turned her affections toward herself and what she was missing out on, what she felt entitled to, what she saw as right. 

Her decision was based on her emotions and her own sense of rightness and justice—she created her own worldview, and it was devoid of God’s true character. She now believed two things:

·      God is restrictive, self-ascribed, and selfish.

·      His promise of death as the result of disobedience was a lie.

We behold whatever is closest to us

These two lies are what “sinners have believed ever since—the lie of the not-to-be-trusted because He does not love me” false Father (Ferguson 69). 

I’m arguing that these two lies begin all our identity issues—we don’t know God, and we don’t truly believe his promises of life and death, so we create our own ways. We try to spin our own narratives through manipulation. 

When God says to let our requests be made known to him and he will give us peace, we doubt it or we don’t feel it so we turn to food. Or social media. Or shopping. Or alcohol. Or friends who don’t point us back to God.

I believe this is the root of our identity crises. 

The truth is that we will behold whatever is closest to us.  If that is not the word of God (which helps us know the Truth about God’s personhood), then of course it will be the other things we spend more time thinking and meditating on, which leads to covetousness, strife, anger and lies. That will be what we are full of—these are what we reflect.

We know then we reflect

Once we know God—study him, talk about him, think about him, talk to him—we will then reflect God’s glory. It’s like a mirror—it reflects what is in front of it.

There is a very huge point here that cannot be missed—we must not aim to reflect. Reflecting is just the natural result of beholding God. 

This is synonymous with someone saying they are “working on themselves” or “reading all the books about patience or anger or proper parenting”—don’t mishear me. Those books are good (if only they are God-centered) and possibly provide necessary pragmatism. However, they are a complete miss if you are not first considering the person of Jesus. 

We must fetter ourselves to who God the Father is—what are his names and what do they mean? He loved you while you were still a sinner.  Relish in him. Delight in him. Take pleasure in him. Desire him. Crave him. Adore him. Admire him. Regard him. Appreciate him. (I’m running out of synonyms here…)

 Once we know God/reflect God/behold God, we will be transformed “…from one degree of glory to another…” So, what is it exactly that we are going to reflect? What are we being transformed into?

Well, Jesus. 

And if we are being transformed into him, then we, in any dose of arrogance, simply cannot claim anything else—gender, ethnicity, and forgiven sins are no longer our primary markers. And if they are. . . well that’s like walking away from a symphony to sit in silence.

(To be continued in Part II on beholding Christ and what we are being transformed into. . .)