The sermon today was from 1 Peter 3.1-12, and it focused mostly on the roles of husbands and wives within the family unit. It was really good, and it made me want to go back to my notes for Prison Epistles class and look through them. I remember we spent several weeks looking at Paul's words in Ephesians (I think?) about what the Christian household is supposed to look like, and I remember it being revolutionary in my understanding of these things. I'll have to go back and look at it all again.
During church I thought about the relationship between our Social Identity, Metaphysical Identity, and the Condition of our Hearts.
Social Identity. This is our identity "within the world," basically our identities within society. Our social class, our social statuses, everything perceivable falls into this category. My social identity is: Single, Graduated Student, Working Class. That is my identity how people perceive me.
Metaphysical Identity. Our metaphysical identity is our "ultimate" identity. There are two metaphysical identities possible, and both possibilities have varying names, and because God is the Ultimate Reality, the metaphysical identities are centered upon one's status before that Ultimate Reality. The first is "In Christ": it is the status of a person reconciled to God through Christ and now a member of God's covenant. This person's metaphysical--ultimate--identity is one of innocence, purity, righteousness, etc. Such a person is 100% righteous, 100% pure, 100% innocent (not due to his or her actions, but due to God's actions through Christ). The other identity is "In Sin": this is the identity of the person alienated from God, an enemy of God, outside God's covenant. That person is 100% wicked, 100% unrighteous, 100% impure--and all wholly due to that person's actions. People have all sorts of different social identities, but there are only two possible metaphysical identities.
The Condition of One's Heart. This is a pretty broad subject, so I'll sum it up. Several months ago, one of my friends made the comment that because we have new identities in Christ, our hearts are healed and whole. I disagree with this. I believe it is the New Testament teaching that the condition of a person's heart is not changed when the person's metaphysical identity changes. I believe a person can be a member of God's covenant and still have a rotten heart. I also believe that rottenness occurs on several levels, and a person who becomes a Christian has a heart softened by the Spirit. Such a person will desire to obey God (obviously, since repentance is a necessity for conversion; and repentance is, at the heart, turning from self-obedience to obedience to God). However, the heart must be continually transformed. As transformation takes place, the person doesn't become holier or more righteous: the person merely becomes able to reflect and live out his or her holiness/righteousness more and more.
During church I thought about the relationship between our Social Identity, Metaphysical Identity, and the Condition of our Hearts.
Social Identity. This is our identity "within the world," basically our identities within society. Our social class, our social statuses, everything perceivable falls into this category. My social identity is: Single, Graduated Student, Working Class. That is my identity how people perceive me.
Metaphysical Identity. Our metaphysical identity is our "ultimate" identity. There are two metaphysical identities possible, and both possibilities have varying names, and because God is the Ultimate Reality, the metaphysical identities are centered upon one's status before that Ultimate Reality. The first is "In Christ": it is the status of a person reconciled to God through Christ and now a member of God's covenant. This person's metaphysical--ultimate--identity is one of innocence, purity, righteousness, etc. Such a person is 100% righteous, 100% pure, 100% innocent (not due to his or her actions, but due to God's actions through Christ). The other identity is "In Sin": this is the identity of the person alienated from God, an enemy of God, outside God's covenant. That person is 100% wicked, 100% unrighteous, 100% impure--and all wholly due to that person's actions. People have all sorts of different social identities, but there are only two possible metaphysical identities.
The Condition of One's Heart. This is a pretty broad subject, so I'll sum it up. Several months ago, one of my friends made the comment that because we have new identities in Christ, our hearts are healed and whole. I disagree with this. I believe it is the New Testament teaching that the condition of a person's heart is not changed when the person's metaphysical identity changes. I believe a person can be a member of God's covenant and still have a rotten heart. I also believe that rottenness occurs on several levels, and a person who becomes a Christian has a heart softened by the Spirit. Such a person will desire to obey God (obviously, since repentance is a necessity for conversion; and repentance is, at the heart, turning from self-obedience to obedience to God). However, the heart must be continually transformed. As transformation takes place, the person doesn't become holier or more righteous: the person merely becomes able to reflect and live out his or her holiness/righteousness more and more.
2 comments:
a thought on Metaphysical Identity: there is only one identity, metaphysically-speaking, because Ultimate reality is caused and maintains being by God alone. Without referring too much to annihilationism, those who you term as "in Sin" as opposed to "in Christ" I would propose do not have a metaphysical existence at all, but are maintained solely through what you are deeming as Social Identity and God's specific hope in their salvation. In this way, we are able to praise non-Christians for being righteous, innocent of certain things, and pure of perhaps other things, because some of them are more pure or innocent than we are. Of course, comparative ethics are no ethics at all, so the only standard we have is 100%. However, a person's Social Identity will never be 100%. Only with the help of the revolution/resolution that God, through Christ, creates in the Metaphysical can anyone ever achieve 100% and a true eternal identity. These thoughts are incomplete and perhaps wrong. What do you think, yourself?
I think my eyes went cross-eyed while trying to understand what you were writing :) You have always been a league above me, Sir.
I would disagree with there only being one Metaphysical identity, that being God. By an act of creation, God created creatures outside of Himself--not so much in the idea that He has created space in which He does not dwell, but He has created organisms and spiritual beings which truly do exist by virtue of His creative power. To say otherwise, I think, would be to delve into some pantheistic thought.
I think, though, the terms I use are simply my attempt to understand our identities in relation to God. You would agree that there are those "in sin" and those "in Christ", depending upon the assumptions carried with each designation, and that those in said identities have different standings before God (i.e. outside covenant, within covenant).
By the term "Social Identity" I mean that identity with which people--with limited and skewed and distorted perceptions--perceive us. And I would agree (if this is what you're saying) that one's social identity does change with the metaphysical identity. A person indwelled by the Holy Spirit will be transformed (renewed, reformed) by God--or at least that's the hope; and this would be evident in the social realm. Likewise, a person "in sin"--cut off from God, enslaved to sin, etc.--would be distinguishable by his social identity. Of course, then you get into the issue of judging people based solely upon their actions (not always a good idea, but biblical nonetheless, at least as long as the one doing the judging is God, who knows the hearts of men). And then I am reminded (as my thought evolves and becomes indistinguishable from the original context of the original thought) of Jesus' words about fruit being present--good fruit means a good heart, bad fruit means a bad heart (in simplest terms). And now I don't even know where my line of thinking is going, except that maybe our Social identities are not so indistinguishable from our metaphysical identities (as I define it) as one might think (including at times myself).
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