Creeds, Deeds & Needs

A Counterintuitive Guide To "Finding Your Identity In Christ"

Each year, one of my early lectures to the VB Fellows is entitled, “Find My Identity In Christ?” The lecture focuses on identity and tries to flesh out what we Evangelicals mean when we say things like, “I have to find my identity in Christ.” For the record, I think this saying is very good and true, but it’s also a bit low-resolution. Yes, we do have to find our identity in Christ, but what does this actually look like on a day-to-day basis? How do we live it out?

As with many modern ethical quandaries, specific application is often hard. Sometimes we can only glean general principles from the Scriptures, and then it’s up to us to discern specifics for our time and place. But the funny thing is, when it comes to the identity question, almost the exact opposite is the case. Jesus very seldom speaks in generic principles about identity. What he does instead—and does over and over again—is give specific instructions for how to become a citizen of his kingdom. Want to find your identity in Christ? Become of citizen of his kingdom. Want to become a citizen of his kingdom? Do what he says. Our Evangelical tradition has certain strengths and weaknesses. One strength has been our ability to glean general biblical principles about what we must think and believe. One weakness has been our inability to integrate a far more prevalent theme in Jesus’s teachings: what we must do.

To illustrate this point, I begin my lecture with a quick three-question Bible quiz. Feel free to take it yourself if you like…

1. According to Jesus, who is the man that builds his house upon the rock? 

2. According to Jesus, why do the people love the darkness rather than the light? 

3. According to James, who is the man who looks in the mirror and then goes away and forgets what he looks like?

To the first question, people often answer, “The wise man,” which is, of course, correct, but not what I’m aiming at. So I prod…

“What is the wise man like? What makes the wise man wise?”

“He builds his house upon the rock.”

“Yes,” I say, but again, this is not what I’m aiming at. So I reference the verse… “Everyone who [FILL IN THE BLANK] will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock.”

“Oh!” they say, “Everyone who believes?”

Now I’ve got them. “That’s a reasonable guess, but actually what he says is: ‘Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them.’ This happens to be the very last teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.’”

The second question takes a bit less time, because, despite the fact that this verse comes right after the most famous verse in the entire New Testament, John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world…”), no one ever seems to know it. But perhaps you, faithful Patient Kingdom reader, will know it, since I quote it often here:

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

I have puzzled over this saying for many years. The beginning, of course, is quite straightforward. The problem of sin is not merely that people need “the light,” as though they were merely lacking in a certain raw material or resource. “Ah, now the light has come. We’re saved!” That would be a simple salvation, indeed. But no, the problem is that the people loved the darkness, so that even when the Light comes, it is not welcome. The people do not want the light. So Christ cannot save the world simply by giving a gift that people lack. No, he will have to change their hearts—transform their loves—so that they become the kinds of people who can and will actually receive the thing he came to give (which is, of course, Himself). In short, salvation is when you finally love God as he has loved you all along. But, to get back to quiz question #2, why, according to Jesus, do the people love the darkness rather than the light? His answer is easy to ignore (chalk it up to that blindspot I mentioned before): “Because their deeds were evil.”

So they love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil? This seems to many of us to be the reverse of the truth. We are used to the formula where inward realities give rise to outward responses. After all, Jesus himself talks about sin proceeding from the heart. “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:26). But here, Jesus seems to reveal that the opposite can also be true. In other words, we know that beliefs drive actions, but what if it is also true that actions drive beliefs? This at least seems to be one of the underlying presuppositions of Jesus’s ministry.

We know that beliefs can drive actions, but what if it is also true that actions drive beliefs?

By the time we’ve gotten to the third question, the sharper students are starting see the pattern. Someone usually answers this one correctly:

For if anyone hears the word but does not do what it says, he is like a man who looks at his face intently in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (Jame 1:23-24)

This verse is interesting, because it depicts self-identity in almost modern terms. Mirrors were rare in the ancient world, at least far more rare than today. So this man has had the distinct privilege of beholding the clear image of his own face in the mirror, and yet, he immediately forgets what he looks like. Why? By what means has he lost track of his identity? Because, like the man who built his house on the sand, he has not integrated word and deed. In other words, having a stable identity requires the steady integration of the disparate parts of ourselves into a unified whole.

3 Levels of Self

A human beings is not necessarily one thing. You have a name, and that name would seem to identify you as one individual, held together, apart from all others. We speak of ourselves, saying, “I think,” “I feel,” “I did,” as though this fact were obviously true. And yet, on a physiological level, we’re made of all kinds of things. Even on a psychological level, we seem to be driven this way and that by all kinds of conflicting thoughts, emotions, and desires. Just because you really want something doesn’t mean you don’t also want the opposite of that thing. Because we are complex beings—and often self-deceived—it is possible to want different things at the same time, without being fully conscious of the fact. So what does that mean about who “you” are?

Well, we are dust (many) and breath (one), where the Spirit (breath) of God gives unified shape to our disintegrated parts as we submit to his integrating work in us. In this light, even conflicting desires are not—or do not have to be—merely a product of chaos and self-deception. They exist because we exist at different levels of being, which are meant to be integrated by proper loves. From Jesus’s teaching in particular, I think we can recognize at least three distinct levels by which we participate (or “find our identity”) in the world. I call these three levels: Creeds, Deeds, and Needs. The two diagrams below present these levels of self in slightly different but related ways.

Thank you Sam Kittrell for the design work.

The first image depicts the levels of self as a kind of iceberg. Creeds (perhaps counterintuitively)¹ exist on the surface level of our consciousness and do not refer specifically to the historic creeds of the church but more generally to what we think, feel, and believe. Deeds exist just underneath the surface and refer to our habitual patterns of behavior. Needs exist far below the surface and represent the most basic prerequisites for human life and thriving. The second image depicts the three levels as concentric circles. The meaning here is much the same, where Creeds are the most external, Needs the most internal, and Deeds the liminal space between. You can also use the second image as a way of understanding Jesus’s saying that “the eye is the lamp of the body” (Matthew 6:22), where the three levels are viewed as overlapping lenses, which must be brought into perfect alignment in order for the eye to see properly. If one or more of these levels are out of alignment, the person’s identity becomes dark, confused, and, over time, disintegrated. Let’s walk through them…

CREEDS (Conscious Self): What you think, feel, and believe.

It may seem strange to propose that the creedal level is on the top of the iceberg. This doesn’t mean it is shallow or superficial. On the contrary, this includes some of our most deeply held beliefs, convictions, and desires—but only the ones we are conscious of—and that is the point. By creeds, I mean all the beliefs and desires we’re aware of, which is why they exist on the surface level. (The liturgical recitation of creeds in Christian worship would be a different—and deeper—matter, belonging more in the Deeds category). And yet, creeds, in this modern sense, govern an enormous amount of our day-to-day existence. They often become the major identity markers which set us apart and/or bind us together. In the modern West, we are almost tempted to assume that what we think, feel, and believe make up close to 100% of who we are. But those who know us well can usually see through our stated creeds to the unconscious parts of ourselves that lie beneath. For instance…

Imagine my wife and I have a planned date night every Tuesday night (wouldn’t that be nice!), and imagine that, for the tenth time in a row, I arrive late. Of course, I believe and know that this is unacceptable. I believe in honoring my wife. I believe in being a man of my word. Moreover, I really love my wife! I feel terrible. How do I keep letting this happen? I’m feeling so contrite I’m almost on the verge of tears when I arrive and say to her,

“Hannah, I can’t believe I let this happen again. It’s completely unacceptable. I love you. I’m so sorry.” Now imagine her response is this:

“No you’re not. You’re not sorry.”

“What do you mean?” I reply, feeling a bit offended. “You can’t know how I feel. I know I’m sorry. I mean I’m literally crying right now, because I’m so sorry.”

“Nope,” she says. “I know you feel sorry. But I also know, in a deep sense, you’re not sorry—at least not as sorry as you think you are—because this is the tenth time in a row that this has happened. It’s not a coincidence. It’s not just a mistake. Your pattern of behavior tells a truer story. I know you love me. But there is some other thing you also love, which at some deep level must be more important to you than honoring me in this time.”

My wife knows me deeply, precisely because she has more than just my stated convictions to go off of. She has lived with me. She has seen my patterns of behavior play out over time. She knows who I am—she knows what I love—perhaps even better than I do. Words are one thing, but actions-over-time tend to give a fuller picture. As Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Which leads us into…

DEEDS (Ritual Self): What you habitually do.

“Deeds” refers to the ritual level, the liminal space between what we want and what we need, between what we want and what we most deeply want. Again, by “Deeds” I do not mean things you happen to do or have done. I mean the definitive patterns you act out in the world for better and worse (like brushing your teeth, praying before bed, watching football on Sundays, looking at your phone as soon as you wake up in the morning, or being late for every date night). These patterns tend to exist just below the surface of our consciousness, but they are discernible as we learn to attend to them. The ritual level is the part of you that commits—and in so doing reveals a deeper level of desire/belief/love—not by saying that you commit, but by doing it. In the modern world, this level of self is often overlooked, but it may actually be the most important for us to pay attention to. Our unconscious ritual patterns are playing a longer game. They may not seem to matter much in the moment, but over time they are the sorts of things which make us who we are, which makes us slaves or set us free.

Our Evangelical world has had a particular blindspot at this level. The typical evangelistic message you hear at a youth event or altar call will usually appeal to the Needs level (“God-shaped hole in your heart”) and then propose a solution on the Creeds level (“accept, believe, and confess”), while leaving the Deeds level largely untouched. Of course, such appeals are speaking profound truth. But we should not be surprised when the same people who accept Jesus in such moments often struggle for years to see real lasting change in their lives and communities. Because…there’s a missing level. We should also not be surprised at the the increasing phenomenon of “deconstruction” in and around Evangelical communities. To be sure, the deconstructionists are often headed in the wrong direction, but their critiques are usually based in truth: there has been something missing, something misaligned, something bordering on hypocritical about many of our faith communities. The gap can often be found on the Deeds level.

Jesus was not one to shy away from the Deeds level. Think of his conversation with the Rich Ruler:

Rich Ruler: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus: “One thing you lack. Sell everything, give to the poor, and follow me.”

Or the Samaritan woman at the well:

Woman: “Sir, give me this water…”

Jesus: “Go call your husband and come back.”

For Jesus, the Deeds level is of central importance, NOT because we must do X, Y, or Z to “earn our salvation”—of course not, that’s nonsense!—but because our embodied patterns of being are the true bridge between our Needs and Creeds. This is simply inescapable. We walk around everyday doing things, all kinds of things. We are made of rituals as much as or more than we are made of matter. Will these rituals become aligned and integrated with the person you hope to be, or will they tie you down and take you places you never wished to go?

As James K. A. Smith has argued, our rituals are not only expressive but formative: they not only reveal what we love, but form us into lovers (for better or worse). If our rituals are good, they will help to form us into people who love what is good. If our rituals are bad, they will form us into people who love the darkness rather than the light. Deeds are that central lens, which, if out of place, will make the whole body dark, but if properly aligned, gives light to the whole religious being, allowing our deepest loves and longings to be reconnected to our day-to-day beliefs, desires, and practices.

NEEDS (Basic Self): The hope—and the void—at the heart of your being.

Needs are the hardest to speak about. Most of the time, we don’t consciously feel our basic needs. They are not so much felt desires as the shape of the thing to be desired, the void itself. Queue Augustine: “You have made us for yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Thus, as Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” That is, happy are those who know their needs. Obviously, our need for God is the most fundamental driver at this level, but that one fundamental necessity for God manifests in a multiplicity of needs, which serve both as symbols of the one true need and as real practical requirements for human life and thriving—physical, emotional, spiritual, and otherwise. These needs/voids definitely drive our behavior (deeds) and beliefs (creeds), but at such a deep level that we can hardly tell what they’re doing to us at any given moment. This is the very bottom of the iceberg. Even our best stories, poems, and songs are only groping at the ineffable depths: “Deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42).

Thankfully, because the Needs level goes so far down, it is not as easily corruptible as Deeds and Creeds. Even the most hardened atheist can often discover, in a kind of Platonic remembering, that he was made for God and that nothing else will satisfy. And yet, as we have seen, causation works both ways. Just as Needs creep up the levels of self and attempt to wake us from our fruitless patterns of behavior and belief, so too our fruitless Creeds and Deeds can drip downward, over time, to the very bottom, where they slowly settle and harden, turning our hearts of flesh into hearts of stone.

The key, again, is to keep the levels of self aligned, so that our deepest needs manifest themselves in healthy rituals, which manifest in true beliefs…and vice versa.

Case Study: The Porn-Addicted Christian

Finally, to show how the three levels coexist and correspond to one another, let’s consider the example of the porn-addicted Christian. On the Creeds level, this person knows with absolute certainty that pornography is sinful, that it threatens to dismantle everything he loves most. He hates pornography and is convinced that he would pay almost any price to be free of it. And yet, on the Deeds (ritual) level, he keeps circling back to it like a dog returning to its vomit. How is this even possible? Why would anyone keep coming back to that which he hates? Well, because he doesn’t just hate it; he also loves it.

“But the man has made it clear that he really hates it!”

On the Creeds level, yes. But below the surface, on the ritual level, he still loves it. In fact, he loves it so much that he keeps coming back to it despite the extreme costs.

“But why? Why would he make such sacrifices for this terrible thing?”

Well, the Needs level can be of some help here. On the most basic level, the man is longing for love and intimacy. He was made to cherish and to be cherished, made to commune with God and others for all eternity. This is not the reason he is addicted to pornography. It is no excuse. But it does give some clarity as to how Satan can twist a good desire into perversion. And it also shows us how a perverted desire can be turned back to its rightful shape. Desires are meant to be redeemed—not deleted—meant to become a force that drives us to God and neighbor rather than alienating us from them. Bad rituals cannot simply be thrown out. We are orbiting beings. A bad orbit must be replaced with a good one.

“Yes, he could change his habits over time. But how can anyone change what they love?”

How, indeed. Thankfully, this is the entire project of Jesus Christ. The problem which sin introduced into the world was never whether or not He could love us, but whether we could love Him. And this is the problem he came to solve. Jesus Christ came to turn us back, to show us the way back, and to be our way back. Our part is to surrender each level of self to Him, not only our Creeds, but also our Needs, not only our Needs, but also our Deeds…to Him. And in so doing, He is realigning and reintegrating our loves, so that we no longer love the darkness but the light, so that we walk in the light as he is in the light.

And that is what salvation looks like. We learn to love him and “find our identity in Him” by aligning our three levels of self to Him, through the work of his Spirit and the help of his Body in the world.

P.S. If you’d like to read more about how to reshape that crucial middle layer with healthy spiritual patterns, check out the article below: Rediscovering the Wheel: 5 Baby Steps Toward A More Embodied Faith

1. Why are Creeds on the surface level and Deeds beneath? As mentioned above, we are inclined to think that our beliefs drive our actions and that our actions are merely the outward fruit of our convictions. But Jesus continually turns this assumption on its head. To be clear, creeds can and do affect deeds. The whole modern world reinforces this “Creeds-below-Deeds” mentality. Identity today is often defined by what a person thinks, feels, and believes about himself or herself and about the world. We will even say things like, “I identify as X, Y, or Z.” But it’s important to notice that the “Creeds-below-Deeds” paradigm is difficult to square with much of the ministry and teachings of Jesus. If creeds are a fundamental driver of deeds, one would think that Jesus would have spent the vast majority of his time teaching us what to think, feel, and believe. Instead we find him focusing most of his time and teaching on a kingdom which must be entered (rather than simply “believed in”), then showing us and telling us what we must do in order to enter it.