Receiving your Manhood

When I was growing up, being a man was very important to me. I remember as a very young boy hearing my parents’ Four Seasons record singing, “"Walk Like a Man",” and thinking, “I want to be a man...I am going to be tough.” I grew up around football, booze, war heroes and a dad that worked hard labor every day. Dad was my first hero. I thought he could do anything. He was athletic, hard working, and clean cut. My earliest memory is my dad crawling on his knees to play with me. Sometimes we would play football, and I would have to run around him. He would grab me with one hand and lift me off the ground. We would laugh, and I knew I was loved. I remember my mom had to pick him up somewhere, and the street was deserted, and he took off running, like he was racing the car, and I thought he ran so fast, almost superhuman. General George Patton was my next hero, the first man I imitated. I remember walking the beach with my cousins, quoting Old Blood and Guts by cussing up a storm. I thought that made me a man. I stood on the beach with my dad’'s binoculars, turning to my cousins and saying, "“My men have lost their fear of the Germans--—I pray to God they don’t lose their fear of me".” Billy Jack, the Half Breed protector of the hippie school was my next hero. I admired his ability to look men in the eye and say, “"You are a liar".” Of course, I loved his karate moves and practiced on stacked garbage cans in my garage. I remember I fought a kid once, and won. It was just plain craziness that helped me win the fight. My kicks were not skillful, but I was a big wannabe, and I wanted it so bad that I tried my hardest—. I thought that made me a man. Arnold was next. I started lifting weights and getting big. I read his book, changed my diet and adopted his confidence. At the same time, I discovered the music of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young, and one of my best friends discovered the great philosophers, and I remember him quoting, “A sound mind in a sound body.” They used their minds. I remember thinking, “I will have the strength of Arnold and the lyrics and smarts of the Boss.” I would have a sound mind in a sound body—. I will be the ultimate man. Needless to say, the combination of Arnold Schwraznegger, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen hindered my quest for true manhood; although, I must admit that Springsteen’s empathy helped me later on in life to understand my humanity better. With my guitar in one hand, and my dumbbells in the other and a harmonica around my neck, I set out to conquer the world. I knew there was more to life than the material world, and had a notion "“A notion deep inside that it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive".” Deep down inside, I felt I was destined for greatness...to be like one of my heroes, for they were mortal souls just like me. I was in college when it dawned on me that I did not know God. I asked Him one night why I didn’t know Him and told Him that I thought he must not like me because I did not know him. So, I told Him that I wanted to know Him if He was real. Well, that unleashed a chain of events, and I’ll try to provide you with a “Reader’s Digest” version:

1. I drove home from college the next day, and got home late in the evening. My sister told me, with a smile, that Jesus was her Lord and Savior. Now, I would have dismissed it if it wasn’t for that smile. My sis has a great, happy smile. Before I left for college late that summer, she had suffered from depression, and was a bit anorexic. I had not seen her smile like that since we were kids. I asked her to tell me more. She did.

2. When I went back to college, an old roommate called me to ask me what I though of Dylan’s conversion to Christianity. I told him that the music was just OK, but my sister was saved, and I was thinking about it all. He got all excited, came over, gave me a Bible, and told me about Jesus.

3. Another person called me and came to talk to me about Jesus.

This may all sound good, and it is, but at the time, I was gravely disappointed. When I asked God to show me Himself, I expected some type of Eastern philosophy where I would fast, walk on coals, get bitten by snakes(like Billy Jack) and meditate on some rugged mountain(remember the manhood thing) I was brought up Catholic, so I knew about Jesus. And, I thought He was weak! I mean, He lost. The Romans beat him up. There was no miraculous escape, no karate moves on Pilate, and no posse to come in and whip the Romans (Eastwood in the Pale Rider). So, I had dismissed Jesus very early on in life. However, as I read the Scriptures, and as I really understood why Jesus died, and He let them do that to Him for me, I discovered that Jesus was the bravest, the toughest, and the greatest man that ever lived. In fact, He was the only True Man—--The Son of Man.

As I sought out to “follow Jesus” I became disillusioned with the 2 dimensional, cardboard, non-existent character that the church held up for an example of a Godly man. There became an intense struggle between flesh and Spirit. I was emasculated by religion. True hope came when I realized I was not my flesh, and that God had joined me to His Son inseparably, and my union with Christ provided me the power I needed to be the man God intends me to be. In other words, our manhood is something we receive when we receive Jesus Christ. I John 2:6 says that anyone who claims to be in Christ “must walk as Jesus did.” Studying the humanity of Jesus will help us understand just who God has made us to be, and the true source of our manhood will be revealed.

Jesus Was Dependant

Jesus stated that by himself he could do nothing! The eternal Son of God laid aside his Deity and relied 100% on the Father. God made us dependant beings. All the talk of our day about rugged individualism is rubbish. We are dependant, and were made to depend on God. You have probably heard someone say, “God is a crutch for the weak.” Well, I have news for you: God is not a crutch, He is our life support. —He is our ambulance, our Regenerator, our Respirator, our very life support. Don’t get offended when people say that—. Paul said that he sought to boast about his weakness. The next time someone says that, agree or correct them that He is much more than a crutch, and ask them what they depending on. We were made to depend on God to for every aspect of our lives, so lets look at our dependence.

Personal Needs

We all have a need for love, acceptance, forgiveness, empowerment, meaning and purpose. Men, especially need to feel adequate. I don’t care how tough you might be, or how macho you are. There is a need deep down in your soul for love and acceptance. If we don’t get those needs met by God, we will look to a myriad of sources to meet that need—--sex being the number one source. * Those sources will often fail us, hurt us, and cripple us for life. God created us with those needs, and it is part of being a man. However, it is this weakness that can make us strong. Think of it: if you allow God to meet those needs for you, you are in a position of strength. On a daily basis, you can know that you are unconditionally loved, completely accepted, and totally forgiven on the basis of Christ’'s work on the cross. You can affirm yourself in these truths and lacking no good thing, you can be in the position to love others. Because the same power that raised Christ from the dead is alive in you.

Identity

What separates the men from the boys? Do you remember hearing that growing up as a kid? I remember. The first time I heard it was at Pop Warner football practice. We started out with conditioning. Running, calisthenics, and strategy were covered the first couple of weeks of practice, and then came the pads. “"Tonight we are going to start hitting--—tonight we are going to separate the men from the boys,:” bellowed Coach Tom. So the ability to dish out physical punishment, and the ability to take physical punishment was Coach Tom’'s way to separate the men from the boys. “What separates the men from the boys?” I’ll give you the bottom line first and then explain: Knowing your true identity is what separates the men from the boys.

There is an incident in Jesus life that is essential to our understanding of what it takes to be a man, or better yet, what God has done to make us a man. Luke 2 tells us that when Jesus was 12 years old he was left behind in Jerusalem for 4 days. When they finally found Jesus, he was teaching in the temple, and the teachers and elders were amazed with him. When his mom told him they were searching all over, Jesus, answered, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Jesus was not worried that he was left behind; he didn’t need someone to tell him what to do, and in that instant, he entered manhood. —He knew His true identity; He knew who his real Father was. And in doing so, he “grew in stature and wisdom, and in favor with God and man.” Knowing our true identity empowers us to grow into the man God has made us to be.

Adolescent psychology tells us that 4 important questions must be answered during adolescence, and the top of the list is “Whom Am I?” Jesus settled that question early on when he realized who his true Father was; that separated him from the boys. To be true, strong men, we must find our identity in our relationship to God through Christ. God, through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ has given us a brand new identity. Our new identity includes complete forgiveness, total acceptance, full sonship and an inseparable union with Jesus Christ.

Complete Forgiveness

Most people see forgiveness as God letting our sins slide— or letting us get away with it. However, the root of forgiveness means to send away. This means that we have been totally separated from our sins. We are no longer identified with them whatsoever. All of our sins were nailed to the cross in Christ along with our “old self.” We were buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him into newness of life. (Romans 6) The new creation—m your true identity, the Spirit Man, is raised with Christ, and your sins were nailed to the cross and buried with Christ. God sees only the Spirit Man who is joined to Christ--holy, blameless and separated from sin. (Ephesians 1) Consider the following verses from Romans 6:10, 11

“The death he died he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

We are instructed in this verse to identify ourselves with Christ Jesus. There is only one way to interpret “dead to sin.” If you’re dead, you can’t do it! That sounds shocking, but if we are alive in Christ Jesus, we can'’t sin because Jesus can’t sin. If our spirit is joined to Jesus Christ inseparably, how can we sin?— Jesus would be sinning also. The verse goes on to say, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.” Again, sin is a separate entity from you—-it is not you. Later in Romans 7, Paul says quite clearly, “It is no longer I that do it, but sin living in me.” So your complete forgiveness provides you with this new identity: “Dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Total Acceptance

Every child wants to be accepted by his parents. Some parents make the child work hard for it, and some never give it which leads to problems later in life. The good news is that God accepts you-—you are an accepted child of God. Righteousness is the biblical word for acceptance. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves: He made us righteous. God now accepts us just as He accepts Jesus Christ. Will Jesus ever be rejected, ridiculed, or belittled by the Heavenly Father? No, then neither can you according to this verse. So, your new ID says you are just as righteous and acceptable as Jesus Christ.

Full Sonship

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” This bold declaration from the 1 John tells it all. That is your lock, stock and barrel new identity -—a child of God. God has covered all the bases in making us His children; that is He has both given birth to us and He has adopted us. This is important because under the Roman law of the day, a father could disinherit a natural born child; however, a father could never disinherit an adopted child.

John 1:12 says that we have the right to call ourselves children of God and that we are “born of God.” Moreover, Romans 8 tells us “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. And by him we cry ‘Abba, Father.” As both adopted and birthed children of God, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. You know what an heir is —the one who gets all the stuff which is great if you father is rich. Being joint heirs with Christ means we have, are and will inherit everything that Jesus’ inherits!

Inseparable Union with Christ Jesus

"“In that day you will know that I am in the Father, you are in me, and I am in you." (john 14:20) ” Look closely at what Jesus is saying here, and ask yourself, where am I and who am I. You are in Jesus and the Father, and Jesus is in you. Who are you identified with? Jesus. How does God see you? The same way He sees Jesus. There are many more verses that explains and illustrates this great truth, and they will be listed at the end of this article, but for now let us look at a modern story that illustrates how knowing our true identity will empower us as men.

Jim Carey starred in a movie called the Truman Show. He was Truman. Truman was born inside a big studio bubble owned by a TV station. Inside the bubble was an entire town, filled with actors and sets. The TV audience watched Truman’'s birth; they watched him grow up, and they tuned in every weak. Truman was the only one that did not know everything was staged. He never left the town because it was surrounded by water. He was told since he was very young that his father drowned in an accident and he was deathly afraid of water. But little by little Truman began to see the truth. The producers and actors tried really hard to manipulate him and keep him from seeing the truth, but once he knew it was a lie, —once he knew his true identity, they could no longer contain him, and he burst out of the bubble. Satan has lied to us over and over again about our identity. He did it to Jesus. “If you are the son of God…” he said over and over again. “If you were really a Christian, …If you were really a child of God…” is what he tells us. So we try harder to be a good Christian. To make matters worse, legalistic pastors, churches, seminars, etc. send us off in all directions trying hard to get what we already have in Christ. It stops when we know our true identity--—no one can manipulate and control us when we know who we are. Likewise, we don’t have to manipulate others to make us worthy —to meet our needs. Instead we can love others like Christ. We are free to hear the Father speak to us—; we are free to walk in strength; —we are free to love others.

So a true man understands the following:

He is dead to sin.

He is alive to God is Christ Jesus

He is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus

God is his True Father

He is an heir of God

He is a joint heir with Christ

He is completely forgiven (past, present and future)

As we understand these truths, we are free to love others. Loving others is the sign of a true man. The masks can come off as we make ourselves vulnerable to our wives, kids, neighbors and friends. They will see and notice the love, and they will sense its power. God gives us our new identity and makes us secure for one reason--—to love others. The recipients of your love will see you as strong, secure and free, rather than weak, manipulative and proud. Try it out…--Believe your new identity daily, and ask God to show you how to love others. You can’t lose.

For further study, read the following verses:

Romans 6: 5-14

Romans 8:25-20

Colossians 2:9-14

Colossians 3: 1-4

Galatians 3:26-29