A study of American society today reveals an implosion of the self at the most basic level, expressed in a strange amalgamation of self-loathing and self-worship. Too often, people try to cover their insecurity and self-hatred by presenting a bold exterior, demanding the validation and acceptance of the world simply by virtue of their existence.
Nowhere is this self-implosion more evident than in the transgender movement. Transgender ideology encourages the individual to suppress the self they hate through hormone therapy and bodily mutilation. As individuals reject their God-given biology, they proudly present themselves to an admiring world. They deserve affirmation for being their authentic selves, some say, or for living out their own truth.
While transgenderism is perhaps the most dramatic example of this skewed view of the self, Western culture is rife with lesser instances. One need only take a brief survey of social media, popular entertainment, or advertising to see this. A culture that turns its back on God loses the ability to regulate a healthy sense of self. Hatred for God invariably leads to hatred of the self, for the self is an extension of God’s character, an expression of the imago Dei. One cannot hate the Creator without transferring that hatred to mankind, His crowning creation and the reflection of His own person.
A hatred for God also causes a deep-seated hatred for the created order in which He has placed us. Because of this, rebellion against God often amounts to a rejection of the designated roles and relationships He created us to fill. Some of the most basic human instincts that God has instilled in us disintegrate as a culture rejects Him. Family relationships and marriages deteriorate, men masquerade as women, and women kill their own babies in the womb.
Yet a secular culture’s denial of an objective moral order cannot erase that each facet of creation, mankind included, was designed to fulfill a carefully curated purpose. Gerard Manley Hopkins captures the bond between functionality and purpose in his poem, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.”
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same;
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
Hopkins’ poem explains that a creature created by the Master Craftsman will be designed with the greatest care, lovingly fitted to its intended function by its created form. For those who have the ears to hear and eyes to see, each created thing that faithfully lives out its purpose reveals the true beauty of its form. What is more beautiful than a man or woman who walks the path that God has traced for them with serene faith and trust? Likewise, what can be more grotesque and tragic than a man or woman who rejects God’s leading in their life and turns their back on His created order?
In the Christian paradigm, action and identity are inextricably bound. This is expressed in Scripture as the relationship between faith and works, a harmonious tension that defines the life of a true believer. The book of James illustrates this with the image of a man who sees his face in a mirror but immediately forgets what he has seen. This man typifies a life of hollow, insincere faith, James says. It is possible to encounter the Word without allowing it to penetrate the heart. It is impossible to open one’s heart and soul to the Word made flesh and walk away unchanged. It is impossible to live with a true faith without also living out that faith.
Hopkins’ poem continues in the second stanza:
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is –
Christ – for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
When we live according to God’s design, our actions and identity become profoundly aligned. The just man is called just because he does just things. More importantly, he does just things because “just” is what he truly is in the eyes of the One who created him. He lives as God intended him to live, and by doing so exemplifies Christ in the eyes of the Father and in the eyes of those around him.
Yet the world separates action and identity. Transgender activists tell us that men can become women simply by putting on lipstick and a dress. But if we untether identity from the Creator, we lose our only basis of definition. Identity is no longer who we are at the most essential level of our being – who God created us to be. Instead, we cry out that we will define ourselves. We build our identity on the shifting sands of feelings, refusing to submit to external authority.
Christians must not succumb to the cultural mores that preach self-determination, self-exaltation, and self-hatred. As Christians, we know that our identity rests upon something much more unshakeable than feelings that come and go. We must be bold to proclaim the peace and joy that come only from a life lived in submission to the Father’s will.
