We come to the final bastion of Western Civilization: our individualism, our person-hood, our self-ness.
Take what you will, but we will cling desperately to the notion that I am an individual, a unique creation. And believe it or not, it is our extreme worship of this sacred cow that keeps us from forsaking all and following God.
It is our high notion of our own selves that is the basis of a very evil thing: pride. It was pride that felled Lucifer. Pride continues to degrade the divine spark within us all.
While you were made in the image of God, you are not God. Our God-like image gives us a certain sense of uniqueness, but just as the creator is infinitely higher than the creature, God is infinitely more unique than man. Therefore, “you can be like God” is quite the deception and impossibility.
While many other cultures take community and collective truths to the extreme, even to the point of denying all individuality, Western Civilization has progressed to the point where we deny all truth about the collective and worship the individual like an Ashera pole.
This is at the heart of pride, which is at the heart of sin. It is our individualism that says, “I choose who I have sex with, I choose what I do with my body, I choose where and when I give my most intimate self away.” This dogma from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has resulted in high rates of adultery, divorce, abortion, sexually transmitted disease, and an overall sexually immoral culture.
It is our individualism that says, “I own these material things. I have the right to own property, to provide for myself, to insure my own security by financial means.” And so we have a culture dominated by materialism and greed. We are a covetous nation.
It is our individualism that says, “I have personal and inalienable rights. I have the responsibility and the human power to fight for those rights and the things that are mine.” And we become a violently divisive people, justifying violent solutions, the right to bear arms, as God-given. Then we experience high rates of murder and violent crime.
It is our individualism that says, “What do I believe? I get to decide whether or not Christ is Lord of my life. I get to decide what religious system or tradition works best for me.” Personal preference and desire become the basis of our belief system, validating only the things we happen to agree with. We become independent agents within our own spirituality instead of looking to a Sovereign God who alone is the independent initiator and a standard that already exists. This leads to much false religion.
In Christ, our individualism dies with our old nature. In crucifying the old man, we are to put on the new man. All distinctions dissipate within the Second Adam, Jesus: “Neither Jew nor Greek, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”
In Acts, “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.”
We will not become the Church God desires us to be unless we repent of our individualism.
Our individualism becomes an excuse for sin in ourselves or others: “I can’t help ______ , it’s just my personality.”
But this is not Christian. How does a dead man have identity? “For I have died, and yet I live, but not me, it is Christ in me.” “Any man in Christ becomes a NEW CREATION.” It is hard to be the new creation when you’re clinging to the old. Losing your personal identity is part of the repentant act. The other part is realizing and claiming our heavenly identity with Christ and His Body.
We have a whole generation of Christians that have been taught to choose their worldly identity over the one given to them in Christ. Just put “Christian” in front of it, and you will be real spiritual … and you can keep your individuality. We have Christian plumbers, musicians, judges, actors, lawyers, soldiers, politicians, goths, metalheads, punks and rednecks. Of course, you must realize that no plumber, musician, judge, actor, lawyer, soldier, politician, goth, metalhead, punk or redneck or anything of the like will enter the Kingdom of God. Only that which is of Christ will enter there.
Why didn’t Jesus stay a carpenter? Why didn’t he ever build someone a table during His ministry? Didn’t people need tables back then? Jesus was more than happy to leave behind His worldly identity to identify with His Father and those that did His will. “Who are my mother, brothers, and sisters? Those that do the will of my Father.”
Yes, in Christ we are given things uniquely: our gifts, calling, and measure of faith as examples. But even these we’ve secularized. Most spiritual gift tests are only psychological personality tests in disguise. You wanna know the biblical spiritual gift test? What does Christ do through you in humble service to the Body? Christ in and through you is the gift. Worry about definitions later.
For many, our call is too tied to worldly success, education, social status, our own lust for position, or plain ignorance.
Even verses we could point to for individual convictions or culture, they’re either discussing ministry to unbelievers or those whose faith is weak.
Jesus left being a carpenter. Matthew left collecting taxes. Peter left his nets. The call to identify with Christ is contingent upon our willingness to lose our own individual identity. Paul goes on in Philippians describing his Jewishness, his flesh, the things he could boast in. But no, he would rather count them all as trash. Why? “To gain Christ and be found in Him.”
Sounds like reason enough to me.
You have to leave one place to go to the next one. This means to be saved from this present generation, you must cease to identify with it. You must lose your individuality and the deep hold it has on you so you may follow Christ in holiness and righteousness. This includes all national, regional, political, racial, and family identity. It includes your talents and personal preferences. Once I repented, the ME that came from the Mooney family died, and only the ME that was birthed in Christ (the new birth, the new creation) has any hope of life.
Peace.