Who Are We—Really?

I am intrigued by the fact that the greatest man in history, Jesus of Nazareth, asked some of His closest disciples, “Whom do men say that I, the Son of man am?”  In answer they put forth a number of names.  Then He asked, “But whom say ye that I am?”  One, Simon Peter, summoned up courage and answered, I think, for most of the other disciples, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus acknowledged to Simon Peter that he got it right. (Matt. 16:13-18)

 

Now what is fascinating is this: How did Simon get it right? How did he really know?  Jesus said that it was “revealed” unto him by God, “my Father which is in heaven.”  How?  Maybe by asking God in sincere prayer and not by judging by appearances—where He was from (“Can anything good come from Galilee?”) or what He was wearing, or what he did ‘for a living,’ etc.  How we know is by being worthy of receiving personal revelation and then asking for it and then getting it. 

    

Hearing others’ opinions on who, notwithstanding His name, others said He was, and notwithstanding Peter’s own close personal association with the Man, Jesus, it took revelation to confirm the divine identity of Jesus for Peter. 

Maybe it is the same with us. We’ve been given a name by our parents.  Over time we have established a public identity and a private identity that may or may not be a true evaluation of who we have become convinced we are.  But neither of the two—the public identity or the personal identity may be accurate.  Either perception may be distorted by deception or by other means. It is for many people.  It also can be cleared up by revelation. 

If we come to know that we have a divine identity, a blood and spirit relationship to God, and we are much more than a ‘butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker,’ or whatever, we will begin to act more in concert with who we really are.  We will take off the mask, will quit the posturing, will begin to act with more humility and will find ourselves coming to be more at peace with ourselves and with our fellow man. 

 

Playacting can be exhausting, expensive, and wasteful.  People gravitate toward the genuine man or woman.  And the genuine man or woman, boy or girl, knows that he/she is a child of God and will begin to live up to it.  There is a nobility in divinity and of knowing we are of noble birth. We will measure all our actions by this true identity and will be much less likely to do wrong or go wrong.

The sooner we find out who we really are, and whose we really are, the better for us and those who know us.