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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Home Page In our day when we have
to seriously protect ourselves from having our identity stolen, decades
ago I was given a brand new ID that no one can steal.
A stolen ID was not a
problem in the first century AD, that is, unless you had been enslaved.
Back then, both your ethnic and religious identity was
predetermined for you at birth. Your
primary religious ID was based on the god or goddess to whom your father,
and thus your family worshipped, followed by a secondary religious ID
based on your community's god or goddess.
Beyond that you were free to adhere to other gods or goddesses of
your choice. Jesus turned this
religious cultural ID completely upside down, as we see in His
conversation with Nicodemus in John 3.
When Nicodemus' mother
gave birth to him, like other ethnic births of his day, his ethnic
identity was Jewish while his religious identity was affiliated with his
family and community God, the God of Abraham.
What Jesus told Nicodemus would turn his religious ID completely
upside down as well. Jesus told Nicodemus
that if he ever wanted to find his way into his God's kingdom as was his
desire, he needed a new transformative identity.
He would still be an ethnic Jew but his religious identity would be
to Jesus, the King of God's kingdom. Most
people believe that Nicodemus did experience this new ID based on John
19:39. What Jesus told
Nicodemus, He has told us all. I have come to
understand that being a white Anglo Saxon Canadian by birth is merely a
temporary ethnic identity. Like
Nicodemus, my desire was to find my way into the Kingdom
of God, which I did when I experienced that second spiritual birth Jesus told
Nicodemus about. Decades ago,
when God's Spirit entered my very being, I encountered a transformative
re-identification. As Paul
wrote, I became someone I never was, a newly created person (2 Corinthians
5:17) and that without being biologically transed.
My earthly ethnic ID is
still a white Anglo Saxon Canadian, but more importantly I am a white
Anglo Saxon citizen of the Kingdom
of God where my temporary earthly ID becomes secondary to my eternal heavenly ID.
First and foremost, I define myself as a Christian as defined in New
Testament terms. In one
transforming moment of time God's Spirit entered me whereby my primary
allegiance was not to Unlike the ethnic and
religious culture of the Greco Roman first century, Jesus invites all
ethnicities to experience a transformative re-identification.
That's what He told His apostles to preach (Matthew 28:19). One's
skin colour may be red, yellow, black or white but that does not determine
your religious ID. In this
way, Jesus has completely turned the religious world upside down.
This was a new counter-cultural concept which was unacceptable for
religious cultures of the first century because becoming a Christian meant
you could no longer adhere to your family and communal gods.
For me, my new identity
that no one can steal, has many implications.
The constitution of Jesus' kingdom, the Bible, trumps Canada's constitution. Where the two differ, I side with God's constitution.
I, for example, obey Canadian law the best I can (Romans 13:1)
without violating Jesus' rule (Acts 5:29).
I also enjoy Canada's constitutional right of free speech, understanding that my heavenly
mandate must be redemptive speech and not destructive speech (James 1:19).
I believe that much of
what is called Christian today has lost Jesus' mandate to be born again
which provides our new identity that clearly distinguishes the Christian
from those in the surrounding culture.
Many who claim to be Christian based on a mere mental belief makes no one a Christian with a heavenly identity.
Scripture
References 1 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore
if any man be
in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are
passed away; behold, all
things are become new."
(KJV) Matthew 28:19 "Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations [ethnicities], baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Romans 13:1 "Let everyone be
subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except
that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been
established by God." Acts 5:29 "Peter and the
other apostles replied: 'We must obey God
rather than human beings!'" James 1:19 "My dear brothers
and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow
to speak and slow to become angry,"
John 19:39 "He was accompanied
by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had
visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds."
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