Who are you? Easy enough question, right? But stop and think about how we tend to answer this.
What is the first response you would give beyond your name? Perhaps that you are a husband, a wife, or a parent. Perhaps what you do for a living. Perhaps your nationality, your gender, your ethnicity, or where you live.
All of these are valid, of course, but do they really answer the question of who you are? Not if you are a believer.
Identity in Christ
For the believer there is one, and only one, primary answer to this question of identity: we are in Christ. Who we are in Christ, and all that entails—forgiven, righteous, adopted, etc.—is our core identity. It is who we really are.
The moment we trusted in Christ, much took place, including we were made new. Our old selves are gone, replaced by our new selves in Christ. When Scripture speaks of this, it is not being highly metaphorical. This is a real and substantive change that we have to understand, appreciate, and live out. Jesus has not been “tacked” onto my identity. He has given me a new identity.
I am not a Christian husband, as if Christian now merely modifies my identity as husband. I am a Christian, who in God’s kindness happens to be a husband.
I am not a Christian parent. I am a Christian who happens to be a parent.
I am not a Christian American. A Christian man. A Christian Anglo. A Christian editor. I am a Christian who happens to be those other things.
Proclaiming only Christ
Because of our identity in Christ, it makes sense that we proclaim only Christ when we share the gospel. Christ is primary to the doctrine of the gospel, of course, but He is also primary to the fruit of the gospel. We aren’t sharing the gospel so that others might have a good life, join our churches, or even escape hell. Those are all secondary byproducts of the gospel. The core value of the gospel is that in Christ, we are able to be who God made us to be. This is why we proclaim Christ.
United by Christ
Because we are in Christ and fully forgiven and righteous, we are one with God. This is part of our core identity: adopted children. But the unity goes beyond that. We are also united with other believers. We are truly one in Christ. Why? How? Because our same core identity fuses us together.
This is what Peter had to learn in Acts 10. But this is a lesson the church is still learning. We are experiencing disunity today because we are placing secondary identities as primary. In Peter’s day, this was being a Jew or a Gentile. Today, we divide over what theological tribe we run in or how we believe the church is supposed to pursue justice.
We can only do so much to fight for unity in the global church today, but we can do much to fight for unity in our classrooms, ministries, and local churches. Let’s take a big step forward this week by celebrating what Peter learned and help those we teach see the beauty, and the urgency, of living as a people united by Christ. No matter what.
The heart of the gospel is what God has done in Jesus, supremely in his death and resurrection. Period. It is not personal testimony about our repentance; it is not a few words about our faith response; it is not obedience; it is not the cultural mandate or any other mandate … The gospel is the good news about what God has done.” — D.A. Carson
D. A. Carson, “What Is the Gospel?—Revisited,” in For the Fame of God’s Name, eds. Sam Storms and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 162.
Listen to the Weekly Leader Training for Preschool & Kids
Every week, members of The Gospel Project for Kids team offer guidance to help you as you prepare to teach every session to preschoolers and kids.
Podcast (kidsleadertraining): Play in new window | Download
This training is available on Ministry Grid, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast platforms.
laycistercians says
Teaching that young generation the words of Christ will help them to develop their faith when they become adults. Thank you very much for sharing this! God bless us all!
Craig Ferris says
On the older kids activity page for unit 31, session 1, the image that goes with the lesson shows both clean and unclean animals in the sheet. But Peter refused to eat any of them because of the legal prohibition against eating anything God had called unclean. The context in Acts 10 implies that the animals were all unclean by Peter’s refusal to eat, Acts 11:6 reinforces this as he again recounts the story and his refusal to eat anything unclean.
I realize that most kids and parents may not notice this, but we should make every effort to be accurate in both the words in the lesson and the images we use in support
Brian Dembowczyk says
We appreciate your desire to be faithful to Scripture, Craig.
In Acts 10:12 we read, “In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky.” There is no indication here that it was only unclean animals in the vision, but rather it seems to be clearer that it was indeed all.
Then in the next two verses we read, “A voice said to him,’Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ ‘No, Lord!’ Peter said. ‘For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.’
Peter’s refusal is more in general, not specifying that he would not eat any of the animals.
Based on this, I would suggest that our representation is fair and accurate to the text. Based on the point of the vision—that there are no clean and unclean people—it would make sense for the vision to include clean and unclean animals together.
Know that while we can make mistakes, of course, we go to great lengths to assure that all we provide is as faithful as possible.