As odd as it sounds, the narrative identity of believers in Christ is tied up with the life story of Jesus Christ, which itself echoes the experience of God’s people in the Old Testament.
With respect to the question of personal identity, if we wonder who we are, Jesus Christ is the one and only perfect human being. In one sense, there are only two basic identities in the world. In the book of Genesis, Adam, the first human being, is the prototype of us all, created in God’s image but flawed and marred by sin. Jesus Christ is the second Adam, the one who gets it right, and the prototype and forerunner of all who put their trust in him.
With Jesus, we see what new humanity looks like. As Oliver O’Donovan puts it, “The new man Christ is the pattern to which we may conform ourselves.”[1] But it’s not just a matter of imitating him. In the Gospels, there is a call to follow Jesus literally. But the New Testament letters, written after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, never talk about following Jesus. “Following” is inadequate language to describe Christ’s impact on our identity.
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