Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity
Overview
For respected New Testament scholar Klyne Snodgrass, this is the most important question a person can ask—the question from which everything else in life flows. Other questions follow: What made you who you are? Who gets to say who you are? And—perhaps most vital—who does God say you are?
In this book Snodgrass offers wise guidance to all who are wrestling with these universal human questions. He examines nine factors—including one’s body, personal history, commitments, and boundaries—that shape human identity, and he expertly draws out what the Bible tells us about who God says we are, how we fit within God’s purposes, and how our God-given identity can and must impact the way we live our lives.
Key Features
- Examines the questions of who God says you are, and how you fit his purpose
- Discusses how to live life to be what God wants us to be
Contents
- Who God Says You Are—and Should Be
- Faith Transforms Identity
- Factor 1: You Are Your Body
- Factor 2: You Are Your History
- Factor 3: You Are Your Relations
- Factor 4: You Are Your Mind
- Factor 5: You Are Your Commitments
- Factor 6: You Are Your Actions
- Factor 7: You Are Your Boundaries
- Factor 8: You Are an Ongoing Process of Change
- Factor 9: You Are Your Future
- A Final Appeal for Identity—That You Become a Person
Top Highlights
“But faith is not about believing stuff; I insist that biblical faith is about being attached to Christ, bound to him, and participating in life with Christ and having your identity transformed by that participation.” (Page 30)
“Real identity, then, is who you are in the dark, when you think no one is watching, not the image you project because of what you want people to think. The real you is the internal you.” (Page 20)
“We delude ourselves about how much we construct our own identity. Especially in our culture we assume that we as individuals are in control of our own identity and that we will be whoever we wish. That at best is partly true, and at times only marginally so. Much of our identity we do not choose, and we have little control over it; it is given to us. For all nine factors, to varying degrees, we have to say part is given and part is chosen.” (Page 10)
“The expression should convey that God is the source and determiner of human existence. ‘Image of God’ is primarily intended to convey that humans are connected to God, were created for relation to God, point to God, represent God, and are accountable to God. The image is about participation with God and vocation given by God.” (Page 57)
“‘People were always coming to Jesus and asking, ‘What must I do?’ and he in effect responded, ‘Tell me who you are, and then you will know what you must do.’ ’” (Page 2)
- Title: Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity
- Author: Klyne Snodgrass
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Pages: 246
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Identity (Psychology) › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9780802875181, 0802875181
- Resource ID: LLS:WHOGODSAYSYOUARE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:46:07Z
Sample Pages from the Print Edition
Reviews
0 ratings
Felmar Roel Rap. Singco
2/16/2018
The most basic revelation that God in the Scriptures and in His Prophets and Apostles tells us regarding our identity and personality is this: that He is a Father, our Father in heaven, and that we are His children, and if children, then heirs, heirs of His eternal life, nature, and glory, if so be we obey Him and His divine will for us.
