When we come to Christ, does God require us to give up the cultural identity and heritage we were born into?
Absolutely not!
But everyone who comes to Christ should be willing to give up everything
that will hinder the development of their new identity in, and service to,
Jesus.
This writer believes part of the reason THE LIVING GOD prohibited images of himself, is that we each paint a picture in our minds of what our Savior looked like when he was born as a human. And that picture usually looks like us. As long as that picture remains in our minds and does not become an image, I think that is perfectly OK. God created each one of us in his own image and in his likeness.
That is why we should all live our lives as God created us to live, as the image of THE LIVING GOD.
When we surrender our lives to Christ, we no longer belong to ourselves,
but to the God of Heaven. We belong to our Father and Lord (as in master) Jesus
Christ, who purchased us with his own blood. We are not our own, for we have
been bought with a great price –Isaiah 9:6, Acts 20:28 (kjv), 1 Corinthians
6:20.
In the book of Genesis, Abraham was instructed to leave his country, his
kindred, and his Father’s house to go to an unknown land that God would show
him.
That could not have been easy for Abraham. He lived in a culture where
family ties and responsibilities meant a great deal. But, even so, he was
obedient to his God in this command.
Abraham was neither asked nor required to adopt the ways and trappings
of another cultural Identity when he chose to follow God. But he was
required to allow God to develop his life and lifestyle into something
completely new.
When we come to Christ, old things are passed away... and all things are
become new. We become a completely new creation and are instructed to walk in
newness of life.
At some point in time, most of our ancestors followed an old way. When
following the old way, if a new God or spirit were introduced, wasn’t the
proper worship of, or way of relating to, that entity sought and adhered to?
Why then, would we not be willing to do the same for our Redeemer and
Creator, the One True God, Jesus Christ, THE ALMIGHTY?
In Acts chapter 19:17-19, we read about people entering a new life in
Christ with a healthy fear of God. They enthusiastically brought items which
were used in “curious arts” i.e., occult and demon worship (the “old ways”) and
burned them.
These new followers of Christ had no desire to retain anything of the
old ways or old traditions, that they finally understood had never been able to
bring life.
The same is true of behaviors and attitudes.
We would be wise to follow their example as we examine and carefully
evaluate what we allow ourselves to come into contact with, identify with, and
become influenced by, via our old life, activities, associations, possessions,
and various forms of media we expose ourselves to.
The cultural situation we are born into is a large part of who
we are but being a New Creation in Christ supersedes even that.
Absolutely everything in the life of a Christian is superseded by the
new identity now possessed in Christ—regardless of what earthly culture one is
born into or has adopted.
Whether we are black, white, Jew, Gentile, Native American, Asian…, the
list can go on and on, if we love tradition and the ways of our earthly cultures
more than Jesus, if we choose to identify with our earthly cultures more than
with Jesus...
He
tells us we are not worthy of him.
If we love this world and the things it contains (including the cultural
heritage we were born into) more than Jesus…
Jesus says the love of the Father is not in us.
Just as Joshua challenged the children of Israel before they crossed
over into the Promised Land, the Spirit of the Living God challenges us today
to, “Choose you this day...”
Do we love our Savior enough to examine the things we may have held
dear, even sacred, our entire lives? Could we say like Peter, “Behold, we have
forsaken all and followed thee…?”
Are we willing to give up everything for Jesus?
He gave up everything for us.
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