Artificial?

Our culture is experiencing an authenticity crisis. There is a deep hunger for genuine relationships, a thirst to be truly oneself. But ‘authentic’ has become marketing speak, wielded by influencers, brands and apps desperate to gain the trust of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Meanwhile artificial intelligence chatbots, deep fakes and misinformation make us wonder if we can trust anything as genuine anymore.

And how do we know when we are being authentic?

It’s easy to turn to comparison to allay our fear of being fake. In the comparison game, we present our most ‘authentic looking’ side to impress. It sounds ridiculous but, for all our AI sophistication, we are on a deeply human quest...

Humanity is looking for a stamp of approval, a stamp that authenticates that we are originals, that we are trustworthy and genuine.

The reality that messes with our reassuring comparison game is: we were made to be Christlike. The person God compares us to is Christ – no one else. Before you despair and stop reading … none of us measures up favourably next to Jesus!

Authentically Jesus

Jesus resisted the personality contests that were rife amongst his disciples. He didn’t bow to external pressure from the social elite, the occupying forces or demonic forces. Even those trying to catch him out had to admit, ‘We know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully’ (Luke 20:21 NLT).

Neither did he bow to internal pressure. He knew that being mastered by his desires wasn’t the way to be truly himself. Jesus turned the tables on our identity mission, revealing that we need to surrender every area of our lives to God for him to bring real life into them:

‘Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it’ (Matthew 16:25).

He was moved, however, by genuine compassion for people. He was the living embodiment of the good news he shared – he was God, alongside us. He aligned himself, his words and actions with God’s values and ideals 100% of the time.

He refused to deviate from his mission, no matter the cost. His hands welcomed, touched and healed those others rejected, drew lines in the sand to expose and defend sinners, called out demons and religious hypocrites and submitted to God in prayer, praise and death.

Hallmarked as authentically his  

How can we follow that? 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 says that Jesus has placed his mark of authenticity on us:

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.’

Like an antique chest trying to compete with Ikea flatpacks, we can continue striving to be normal/ special enough to fit in … but we don’t need to. We have unquestionable evidence of our origin. We were created by an old master, we bear his seal of approval in Christ and we carry his Spirit – our maker’s eternal guarantee of restoration and belonging.

Being true to ourselves means taking off our masks and taking God at his word. It means noticing God’s handiwork in those around us and revealing the price he paid to set them free from all things artificial.

Authentic alongsiding  

Those around us are crying out for something real to believe in, but they often have an innate distrust of love, grace and, sometimes, Christians. As alongsiders, we can worry that sharing the gospel means we carry an agenda, or that sharing our lives will reveal that we are frauds.

How can we be genuine as we draw alongside people in this authenticity crisis?

The people who have faithfully got alongside me are honest, vulnerable and humble. They don’t try to pretend that they have all the answers.

They try to align their lives with the Bible, to practise what they preach. They are willing to show me something of their inner life, including the messy, unpresentable bits.

I believe these traits are rooted in the conviction that they are safe in Jesus’ hands – he is their stamp of authenticity, so they don’t have to earn it from God or from me. In this way, the people they get alongside can see and experience the authenticity of Jesus.

So it’s okay, we can keep dying in the comparison game (then shove it off the table or throw the controllers out the window!). We can restart living in Christ, trusting that through him the love we are striving to gain is already (and forever) ours. We can remind each other that the gospel is real.

We can stop looking for our ‘authentic selves’ and start looking to Jesus together (Hebrews 12:2).