I’ve been reading a book lately called “Deeper” by Dane C. Ortlund. It is a great book with some great principles to challenge you to grow deeper in your relationship with Jesus (although I don’t agree with everything he says, he makes some powerful points).
I wanted to share a quote from this book about what it means to be “in Christ.” Notice what he said:
“If you can bear an irrelevant illustration, think of yourself as an onion. The outer peel consists of the peripheral things about you, the parts of you that don’t matter much: your clothes, the car you drive, things like that. If you peel away that layer, what’s next? A collection of things slightly more essential to who you are: the family you were raised in, your personality profile, your blood type, your volunteer work. Peel that away. The next deeper layer is your relationships: your dearest friends, your roommates if you’re a student, your spouse if you’re married. Peel that away. The next deeper layer is what you believe about the world, the truths you cherish deep in your heart: who you believe God is, what your final future is, where you think world history is heading. The next deeper layer after that compromises your sins and secrets, past and present, things about you no one else knows. Keep peeling away layer after layer, everything that makes you you. What do you find at the core? You are united to Christ. That is the most irreducible reality about you. Peel everything else away, and the solid, immovable truth about you is your union with a resurrected Christ.”
I found this illustration to be particularly challenging for me. It’s easy to identify ourselves by what we wear, what we drive, our relationships, what we believe in so passionately, or even by our deepest darkest sins. But for a Christian, our identity is not wrapped up in any of those things. We have to peel all of that away to get to our true identity: a person united with Jesus. And every other layer of your onion (if you will) should stem from that core. I want to challenge you to see yourself the way Jesus does: as a person united with Him.
— Kolton Ballance