There may be no more important question that someone can ask you.
“Who are you?”
How do you answer it? One man answered it this way:
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. — Saul of Tarsus
Paul was the man. He was as good as it gets. He knew he was. He could answer this question without hesitation or doubt.
Then he met Jesus and everything changed, his entire identity was transformed, so much so that he went by a different name. Check it out:
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
— Paul of Tarsus
Paul was living a fear-of-the-Lord life. Who he was stopped being wrapped up in the external and the outside it began to be wrapped up in the resurrection. His life was primarily marked by his desire to live the resurrection life.
After meeting Jesus his answer to “Who are you?” changed forever. He wanted more than anything else “to be found in Christ”. That’s who he was now.
This is the beauty of following Jesus. We are given new identities as Paul writes, “we are new creations”.
How do you answer the question, “Who are you?”
