I recently read of an art gallery that has an exhibit for children, one in which they are given a blank piece of paper and placed in front of a mirror so they can attempt to draw a self-portrait. If you had to draw a picture of yourself as you enter this new year, what would you draw? Are you expectant or regretful, hopeful or cynical, self-confident or self-condemning, trusting or fearful, tired or energetic? How we see ourselves can often feel dependent upon the day-to-day roller coaster of our circumstances. Wouldn’t it be great if we could draw our identity from something more permanent, something unchanging?
This is why I love the picture above. In it Mickey is painting a self-portrait. However, instead of that self-portrait looking like him, it looks like his creator, Walt Disney. Mickey is identifying with the one who created him, the one to whom he belongs. For those who follow Christ, the same reality is true about our new identity. We are no longer who we used to be. Paul says we have “put off our old self, which belongs to your former way of life and is corrupt through sinful desires” and have “put on our new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24).
No matter how you see yourself at the beginning of another year, remember that, if your faith is in Christ, then you have been bought with a price and belong to God (1 Cor. 6:20), you have been adopted as God’s child (Eph. 1:5), you have been redeemed and forgiven of all your sins (Col. 1:14), you are free forever from condemnation (Rom. 8:1-2), and you can never be separated from the love of God (Rom. 8:35). Whether it feels like it or not, these things are the deepest and most true realities of who you are in Christ. Just like we see Walt Disney in the place of Mickey in his self-portrait, when God the Father looks at us he sees the righteousness and holiness of his Son.
Ben
I referenced this book in a recent sermon and highly recommend it as one that will help you remember who you are in Christ in this new year:
When I Don’t Desire God by John Piper