Can we define ourselves? Or perhaps a more appropriate way to phrase it, can we redefine ourselves? That is a question each of us asks in one aspect or another. The question puts forward two aspects, ability and authority. According to Webster’s 1913 edition, the word define means – “to fix the bounds of; to bring to a termination; to end.” Are we able to set the bounds for ourselves, to adjust our limits? Secondly, do we have the right to do so?
A good story to illustrate this occurrence in human thinking comes from the first person to experience the question of self-definition. Consider the story of Eve’s temptation in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:1-7 The snake was more clever than all the wild animals the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman answered the snake, “We’re allowed to eat the fruit from any tree in the garden 3 except the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘You must never eat it or touch it. If you do, you will die!’”
4 “You certainly won’t die!” the snake told the woman. 5 “God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened. You’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 The woman saw that the tree had fruit that was good to eat, nice to look at, and desirable for making someone wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then their eyes were opened, and they both realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made clothes for themselves.
First, let’s consider our ability. Not one of us is self-made. We didn’t fashion ourselves in our mother’s womb. We played no part in our body’s natural development, besides feeding it with proper nutrition and sleeping and exercising. We can’t control whether we are a natural blonde or brunette. We can’t control the color of our skin. We don’t have a say about how tall we grow up to be. We didn’t choose what century we were born in, or to whom we were born too. We also didn’t get to select what natural abilities we have. It’s possible to improve and gain new skills, but ultimately, we refine what we are already able to do. We can’t all be Mozart just because we’d like to play the piano well. So, as we think about it, we can see that our ability is limited. We can dye our hair, we can wear platform shoes, we can take piano lessons, but at best we are working within constraints we have no control over.
Secondly, do we have the authority to define our boundaries? The question about ability is a physical concept, whereas authority is metaphysical. Is it moral for us to define ourselves? Do we have the right? My answer is no, and here’s why I think that. If something is made, the implication is that it was made for its maker’s purpose. In fact, usually the limits in an object’s use (or ability in our case) accords with the intended purpose its maker designed it with. A hammer is an excellent tool for pounding nails, but could you chop down a tree with it? If you don’t have the ability to do something, you also don’t have the authority to do it.
Satan told Eve she could be like God knowing good and evil. Satan’s lie was that Eve could play God. The tragedy is that knowledge of good and evil only condemned us to lose the freedom God created Adam and Eve with. We became slaves to sin.
Satan still attacks the boundaries God has set. Feminism says who are you to say what I should and should not be? Sexual immorality says who are you to say I must be monogamous? Homosexuality says who are you to tell me what my sexual orientation is? And transgenderism says who are you to decide my sex? One song writer laments,
“I thought you were holding out on me now
to keep me from being free
how could I have been so wrong?
I tried and tasted what’s forbidden
And it filled me with delight
But now I’m still hungry inside”
Those boundaries were set in a place by our maker for one particular purpose. It is given to us in Acts 17: 24-27
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,[c] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”
You are where you are right now so that you might seek God and find him. Your purpose is to be in relationship with the one who made you, the one who knew you before you were born, and the one who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for you. I was once a sexually immoral person. I found no satisfaction in my behavior. Casting off God’s restrain only enslaved me to myself. It’s through accepting God’s definition of yourself that you can be truly free.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Forgive us Lord for living like we are not yours.
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