For tunately, we have a complete
picture of what a dangerous good life
looks like. Jesus came and lived His
life as a man, giving us a model for how
a man lives out his truest identity. He
came not only to show us that living
for an audience of one is the right way
to behave, but also to motivate us to
do the same. Masculinity starts and
stops with Jesus. He is both alpha and
omega male when it comes to living in
front of God.
Christ defies the gender-bending
labels of today’s culture, transcending
and overcoming them. Jesus brings
masculinity to a place where cultural
man cannot go but where every man on
planet earth longs to be: a place where
danger and good come together.
Specifically, Jesus shows you four
things.
Living Out My Truest Identity Gives Me
the Greatest Integrity
In Mark 12:14, Pharisees and Herodians
come to Jesus and say, “Teacher, we
know that you are a man of integrity.
You aren’t swayed by others, because
you pay no attention to who they
are; but you teach the way of God in
accordance with the truth.”
He knew who He was so He didn’t have
to become someone else. His critics
could not accuse Him of hypocrisy;
even though they wanted to find dirt,
Jesus was the real deal and they had to
admit it.
Jesus was not a man-pleaser but a God-
pleaser. He was an audience-of-one
kind of guy. He didn’t have to overthink
social settings or situational ethics
because His identity told Him to do
that one thing which would show love
for God and people in a given moment.
That meant Jesus broke the rules of
broken male culture when compassion
or God’s Word required it. That is
significant. The religious men of Jesus’
day marginalized women, children and
Gentiles (non-Jews). As we can see,
Jesus wasn’t “swayed” by those men.
There is your working definition of
integrity, and the byproduct of a true
identity in God: God’s man does not
pander to people, but lives out God’s
purposes regardless of the rules of
culture. He is a Son of Christ, not a son
The word “integrity” comes from the
math term “integer,” which means whole
or undivided. To possess personal and
spiritual integrity means to have a life
that is undivided between what you
believe and how you actually live and
think. Jesus knew that He came from
God and that He was going back to God;
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