That is quite a question, but I believe that today it is one that is being asked and answered in a way that is partial at best, and maybe not even permanent.
We are fluid, dynamic creatures. How we identify today may not be how we used to identify, nor how we may identify 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks or even 20 years from now. It all seems insufficient and doesn’t capture the whole person that is me, or you. You and I are many things. A cluster of descriptions gets closer, but how large does the cluster need to become before I feel accurately known and understood and described?
How can we identify in a way that is holistic and authentic and permanent?
There is one aspect about us as human beings that offers a hopeful and life-giving answer.
The late Dr. David Powlison, former executive director of the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation, helps us understand the central discussion of human identification from a biblical Christian viewpoint (i.e., “according to Thy word” in Ps119 language). I hope you will check out Dr. Powlison’s article, recently reissued at Crossway.org (May 14, 2022):
6 Basic Realities About a Man’s Identity
by ReadPsalm119.com
NOTE 1: This article was first published in the ESV Men’s Study Bible. Though sprinkled throughout are references to men (man, men, fatherly, husband, husband to wife, masculinity), the message is exactly the same in scripture as if the terms were interchanged: woman, women, motherly, wife, wife-to-husband, femininity. There is no difference in gender in the principles of our relationship to God or the identity that He has given us in creation, regardless of gender or roles that we perform here on earth. Therefore, when reading as a woman, simply exchange terms in the places they occur.
NOTE 2: I have heard it argued that subservient terms such as “servant” and “submit/submission/submissive”, etc. are negative and not even Biblical, that God does not see us in that light at all. And if He does, then we are put off against God by it. Yet Jesus called HImself a servant, and was submissive to the Father even in death. It is by these very terms that we receive love and salvation, power and authority, and purpose and meaning from Him. Therefore, I hope that you will read the article to the end to see what is truly meant by these terms and how beautiful these terms can be for us in God’s definition of and purpose in them.
