What Does it Mean to Be Truly Authentic?

How can you be authentic if you don’t actually know who you are? It’s not just being an open book and expressing how you feel in the moment. That’s a step in the right direction. But we need to acknowledge that sometimes what we feel and think is only an expression of a false-identity. Sin has marred us. Therefore, the first step in being more authentic is to understand that our identity comes from God and not us.

If you want to be truly authentic, you have to start with your identity. And that’s not something you create. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Being “crucified with Christ” is a key part of that. It’s only when our false self dies that we’re able to embrace our true self. The gospel is what gives us the strength to be honest. We know because of what Christ has done for us that, we are accepted with all of our distortions. We don’t have to pretend. It isn’t some future version of us that God loves, and it’s who we are today—warts and all. But the gospel also doesn’t keep us there. It is transformative.

Every analogy breaks down at some point, but perhaps this one will help. Imagine a boy who is playing outside and gets himself absolutely disgusting with mud and grime. While he’s filthy like this, his mom probably won’t let him into the house to sit on the new couch. He needs to be cleaned up. But it doesn’t mean that he is any less her son. He’s loved and accepted even with mud all over him. But he also needs to take a shower.

Now imagine that this boy began to think that his true self was as the mud-monster. While he continues to embrace this foolishness, he’ll be unable to experience the fullness of being a part of his family—no watching television on that couch while you’re the mud monster. But perhaps for a season, while still in this delusion, Mom might make him a palette of comfortable old blankets. She’ll relate to him, at least in some sense, even while he’s adopted this silliness.

He's not being authentic because he’s not really the mud-monster. Real authenticity means accepting that he is part of the family and he’s not meant to have all this mud on him, which means that authenticity will necessitate his showering. But his parents are gracious and patient and they know that little boys don’t much like to shower. This is why sometimes it gets confusing because the little mud monster is part of the family, and it looks like his silly ideas are being tolerated. And at other times, Mom is a bit sterner and practically throws him into the shower.

All of this is to say that real authenticity is harder to come by than we might think. But someday, we will be who we truly are because we will see Him as He truly is.

"Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is."

Some day, we will all be authentic.

Photo Credit: Austin Kehmeier/Unsplash