Identity and ethics

The latest television ad for the Australian Army Reserves features a bunch of reservists standing, facing the camera.  Each one is holding aside part of their civilian dress to reveal the otherwise unseen army uniform.

As a piece of communication, the ad is really clear.  These people are in the Army Reserve.  The job they have from 9-5 every weekday is simply what they do.  It’s an activity.  But the Army Reserve is who they are.  It’s their identity. 

Of course, this identity is largely invisible most of the time.  In the world of the ad, it’s only as they hold aside their civvies that you see who they really are.  But it’s the bigger reality that helps you understand why they live the way they live, and why they do the things they do.

It’s a lot like the way it’s meant to be for Christians.  Fish stickers on cars notwithstanding, there aren’t really any outward signs that someone is a Christian.  To borrow an image from Revelation, you can’t tell just by looking at someone whether they have the mark of the Lamb or the mark of the beast.  It’s a reality unseen by the naked eye. 

And so just like Army Reservists, there are Christian doctors, teachers, gardeners, graphic designers, librarians, lawyers, ship builders, scientists, puppeteers, policemen and photographers … to name just a few of the professions represented in our church.  But these things are just what they do.  They’re activities that occupy maybe even a great deal of their time.  But it’s not really who they are.  It’s not their identity.

For that, we need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the gospel of God’s grace.

Identity nearly always solves problems of ethics.  Understanding who you are tells you how to live.  As parents, my wife and I tell our eldest son that he’s going to be in high school soon, and at high school his teachers will expect very different things from him than what they expected of him in primary school.  This year, he is one of the Band Captains at school.  That places certain pressures on him to act in a particular way at band practices or at performances.  He’s expected to lead the way because of who he is … a Band Captain.  Identity nearly always solves problems of ethics.

What does this mean for us as Christians?  It’s not an exhaustive list.  But here are five ideas to start with …

We need to understand ourselves as objects of God’s undeserved, but wonderfully rich, mercy and grace.  That’s what will keep us humble in faith. 

We need to understand ourselves as servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, his disciples, his followers.  That’s what will lead us to obedience and to whole-hearted service of him. 

We need to understand ourselves as rebels against God who have been called to repentance.  That’s what will lead us to continue putting to death our old way of life.

We need to understand ourselves as those whose citizenship is in heaven and whose hope is in the unshakable kingdom to come.  That’s what will keep us from storing up earthly treasures that are destroyed by rust and moths.

We need to understand ourselves as those who were once not a people, but who are now the people of God; as people who were alienated not only from God but also from each other, but who are now reconciled both to God and to each other, as members together of God’s family.  That’s what will keep us being devoted to brotherly love for each other in the same way that Christ has loved us.