We hear a lot about the two-way battle between flesh and
spirit, particularly in the New Testament letters. I’ve been noticing lately,
however, that it sometimes seems like a three-way battle. There’s the outer
self that everyone knows and sees. Then there’s the inner self with all its
secrets, sins, and hidden motives that few people, if any, ever know about. And
finally there is the spiritual self that is defined by how God sees us in
Christ. Certainly that third “self” is the one we want to live out, though it
takes a lifetime of learning how to do so. In the meantime, we have to wrestle
with how to integrate the spiritual reality with how we see ourselves and how
we present ourselves to the world.
Rick Warren commented, “The upcoming generation places a
great value on authenticity. But it’s important to see that you’re not
authentic until you can publicly admit how inauthentic you are most of the
time” (http://www.desiringgod.org/conference-messages/the-battle-for-your-mind).
How closely does our self-perception match the public persona? And how well do
those agree with God’s view of us? I’ve long been fascinated by the definition
of “integrity” as being unity or wholeness. It’s more than just morality; it’s
having a unified personality, free from distortion.
Todd Wilson wrote the following, an excerpt from his book Real Christian as shared on http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/what-does-it-mean-to-be-real:
“Real Christians are new creatures.
Physically, they won’t look different than others, at least not in the way they
dress or keep their hair. Yet real Christians are radically changed—they’ve
experienced a new birth, received a new heart, and enjoy new desires. Which
makes them altogether new people who live new lives
“And it shows. If you’re real, it
will reveal itself in your life. Real Christians bear the marks of authentic
faith in ways that can be seen, heard, and felt. When you know what you’re
looking for, you can see the marks of real in their lives—and in your own.”
The challenge, as I see it, is that we don’t even recognize
how inauthentic we really are at times. After all, “the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9
ESV). Not only do we fail to understand the true motives of our hearts, but pride
keeps us from being open and honest before others. Then to top it off, we often
forget or don’t know how to live out our true identity in Christ. I wish I had six
easy steps to authentic Christian living, but I think we’re all still trying to
figure out this life. As many have said, the first step is realizing we have a
problem.
A local church had the following on their marquis for some
time: “You only become yourself by God's power.” He’s the one who created us in
His image, and He’s also the one who has re-created us in Christ. (See 2
Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 2:20, and Romans 6:4.) He’s the one who knows us
intimately and loves us intensely. And He’s the only one who can transform us
inside and out to reflect His glory.
Todd Wilson comments, “Wholeness is one of the marks of a
real Christian, because when you’re real, you’ve received not half of Christ
but the whole Christ… Every grace that is his is now ours, the fullness of his
life within us. Everything we see in him, we will see ever increasingly in us”
(115-116).
I want that to be my experience day by day, having a unified
personality that increasingly reflects the mind of Christ in my perspective of
God, myself, and others.
“I have been crucified
with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the
life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.” –Galatians 2:20
