Here’s another helpful quote from Franklin’s book Who Calls Me Beautiful. Enter the book giveaway here.
Identity in Christ is a powerful, living force. My identity defines and shapes my life: “I have been crucified with Christ: it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20) My understanding of physical beauty, along with the desires of my flesh has been crucified with Christ. Thus the beauty that now resides in me is that of the Spirit not of the flesh.
Furthermore, my body along with my beauty is now a symbol of my relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul set forth this idea when He wrote,
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
My life is no longer about me. My beauty is no longer about me. Trying to create my own beauty in the world’s image is to separate my beauty from my identity in Christ. Holding to the world’s image of beauty is refusing to crucify y desires and living willfully in the flesh.
Two questions then arise: how do I live out my identity in Christ, and now do I change my perspective from worldly beauty to spiritual beauty? After all, I am both flesh and spirit. I cannot simply say that how I look doesn’t matter. With one simple statement, Jesus summed up how we are to find our identity and our beauty in Him. When asked which commandment was the greatest, Jesus responded, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all y our heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).
When I pursue God with all I am, what I want will change. Worldly desires will die, and my new desire will be to live in Him and for Him. Finding my identity in Christ, I allow all that I am -spirit, mind, and body–to be defined by God. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us understand our new identity(…)
When we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us, we avoid becoming enslaved to the world’s standard of beauty, and instead are set free to find our true beauty in Christ. When the Holy Spirit “bears witness…that we are the children of God,” we begin to see ourselves and our beauty as God sees us. My understanding of beauty will then have proper perspective because I will see myself not as the world sees me but as God sees me —in Christ.
Regina Franklin, Who Calls Me Beautiful, Chapter 6, pg. 78-80
