Identification plays a greater and scarier role in our lives these days. Identity theft is something we must (pun intended) virtually guard against with every purchase or post. Will we really be forced to get the “identity microchip” in our hand, forehead or some other body part? Will that usher in the antichrist?
I’m thinking of a different form of identification; the way Jesus identified with man when He came to earth as the God-man in human flesh: “And the Word became flesh and lived for awhile among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
I read how Jesus identified with the outcast and downcast members of his world, from lepers to prostitutes. Was that easier for him because he entered the world as an outcast? There was no room for him in the inn? His birth was labeled “illegitimate.” His own countrymen did not accept him, but instead crucified him (Matthew 1:18; Luke 2:7; John 1:12)?
I became familiar with the various “identification” debates among Bible scholars last year when I taught theology at Malone University. How much did Jesus actually identify with man? What divine qualities did he give up when he entered this earth? The mysteries are many.
We know he was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He identifies with our struggles against sin.
He also knows all about human suffering and pain that exceeds what most of us will ever experience: “…his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 52:14; 53:5).
Jesus went through all of this identification so that he might take the consequences of our sins in his crucifixion, because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness…” (Hebrews 9:22). He had to be fully God to take our sins upon himself so we wouldn’t have to.
The apostle Paul said one man might die for one man, but for one man to die as a substitute for the whole world, that required a perfect sacrifice. Only a God-man qualified (Romans 5; John 1:29).
Now we must identify with him by following him. The Bible consistently says our relationship with him must be more than just believing he did a bunch of sacrificial and supernatural stuff for us. If we are to experience the abundant and eternal life He came into this world to give us that first Christmas, we must enter into a love and trust relationship with him. We must FOLLOW him: “Yet to all who RECEIVED him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…Whoever lives and believes in me will never die…” (John 1:12; 11:25).
