According to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, an estimated 17.6 million people age 16 and up were victims of identity theft in 2014 alone. This includes 8.6 million victimized due to fraudulent use of a credit card, and two-thirds of all victims faced a direct financial loss (Erika Harrell, “17.6 MILLION U.S. RESIDENTS EXPERIENCED IDENTITY THEFT IN 2014,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, September 27, 2015). Identity theft is an increasing threat because of the ease with which someone can pretend to be someone else using only a few pieces of information. If people claim they are you, and they have just the right identifying numbers to back it up, they can do a lot of damage.
Jesus asked his disciples two questions: “Who do people say I am?” and “Who do you say I am?” (see vv. 13, 15). All of us are not only confronted with these same questions, but we also answer them by how we live. Just knowing the historical faith and what others believed is not enough; we each need to make our own personal profession of belief in Jesus as the Son of God who died for our sins and rose again. Which identity will we choose?
