Focus: Who Am I?

Text: Mt.16:17

"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for FLESH AND BLOOD hath not revealed it unto thee, but MY FATHER which is in heaven."

Knowledge of a person is of two kinds: the human and the divine, or the knowledge of man, and the knowledge of God. What men know about you is insufficient knowledge. What men know about you can be grossly inadequate, somewhat incomplete or outrightly inaccurate, and so living your life based on what others think or say that you are, is precariously dangerous.

No one can know you better than your maker. You are living a false life until you know what God says you are. Perfect knowledge of who you are only comes from God. In all our knowing, we only know in part about anything and everything. To some degree, we know so much about nothing.

When we live solely on what others know about us we end up living only half a life.

Phillips Brooks says something very touching in this regard. He says, "When you discover you've been leading only half a life, the other half is going to haunt you until you develop it." That is so serious! Are you living a whole life or just half a life? Is something missing in the life that you are living now?

We need to understand that no man knows it all about us. People don't know you well enough to conclude about you. Human knowledge is insufficient. God says to Samuel, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1Sam.16:7). 

God and man see things differently. They see things from different vantage points. Whoever knows you only outwardly has not really known you. There is more to you than what meets the eye. Paul says, "Wherefore henceforth know we no man AFTER THE FLESH: yea, though we have known Christ AFTER THE FLESH, yet now henceforth know we him NO MORE" (2Cor.5:16). Human knowledge is limited and cannot be totally relied upon. John tells us how well Christ knows all men. He says, "But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because HE KNEW ALL MEN, And needed not that any should testify of man: for HE KNEW WHAT WAS IN MAN" (Jh.2:24-25). 

The Lord Jesus Christ knows man in totality - in and out. He does not need the expertise of anyone to be able to decode man. His knowledge of human nature is perfect. Paul says, "For now we see through a glass, darkly… now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1Cor.13:12). Man knows in part - partial knowledge, but God knows perfectly - absolute knowledge.

You will not be able to live a free and full life until you know who you are from your maker's vantage point. Read through Psalm 139 and see how well God knows you.

True knowledge of who you are is totally liberating. Until you encounter yourself by encountering Christ, you will only be acting out scripts written by other people.

Jim Morrison said, "The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first." Man remains a masked person until he meets with his God through Christ. For lack of true knowledge of what he is, man is both masked and caged.

Jesus Christ asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" And this was the answer that He got from them, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." The public polls did not tally with what He surely knew of Himself. The labels were all false. He wasn't John the Baptist. He wasn't Jeremiah. He wasn't Elijah, and He certainly wasn't just one of the prophets. They got it all wrong. There could have been little traces of those personalities in Him, but He was not them at all. The tags didn't match. Perception can be very far from reality. Just imagine Jesus Christ struggling to be like John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or any of the prophets at the same time! 

Imagine one person trying to be different persons at once! That is identity crisis. That is personality clash or personality disorder. He would lose Himself in the process. Even two of His disciples at one time wanted Him to call down fire from heaven like Elijah did, but He would not give in to that. He didn't come to earth to be another Elijah or to do what Elijah did.

Jesus Christ then asked His disciples again, "But whom say ye that I am?" One of the most tragic things about life is when those who should know you better don't even know you at all. Then by a direct revelation from heaven, Peter says, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." This revelation of Jesus' true identity is coming straight from the right source - the throne of heaven. God opened Peter's eyes to see who Jesus Christ truly was. 

The Father is in a better position to tell who His son is, and the same can be said of Jesus Christ for His Father. John writes, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (Jh.1:18). Jesus Christ says, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father…" (Jh.14:9).

When it comes to knowing the real you, the flesh is not the right source. Human psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology, chemistry, physics, and the rest of it, cannot fully explain who or what you are. You are more than the sciences and the arts say. The real you cannot be perfectly defined or adequately described by human knowledge. We need divine revelation. We need divine encounter with our God. Interestingly, the Scripture is the book of divine revelation. In it we find God and ourselves.

What the flesh reveals about you is not as important as what God as your maker knows of you.

If all we know about Jesus Christ is purely historical knowledge, then we know very little of Him. Christ precedes and supersedes history. There is more to Christ than what we read in the Gospels. The one born of Virgin Mary is more than a human being; He is the maker and master of the universe. He is God. Paul says, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb… TO REVEAL his Son IN me…" (Gal.1:15-16). 

God reveals His Son to us internally, not just historically. The Spirit aids us in internalizing the truth or reality of Christ. By the Spirit the objective truth becomes a subjective, concrete, and experiential reality.

I pray that you catch a revelation of your true identity, and that you encounter a liberating knowledge of your true self. I pray that you come into contact with your real self as you get to know who Christ truly is. Who you are is certainly tied to who God is. Find Christ, and you will surely find yourself!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter