08/28/2026
𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧:
The true self is who you are because of the divine indwelling, the Holy Spirit within you (Romans 8:9). We are all temples of God, says Paul (1 Corinthians 3:16). What happened in Christ, the Anointed One, is an announcement of what is happening in all of us, too. We are children of heaven and earth, both at the same time. Much of the work of enlightenment is bringing those two identities together, just as Jesus did.
Putting the human and the divine together is what it means to be “the Christ” (Colossians 1:17–20), and what it means for us to be “the new Adam [and Eve]” (1 Corinthians 15:45–49). Ephesians could not make it much clearer: “You too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit that was promised—this is the pledge of your inheritance” (1:13–14). Few Christians have ever been seriously taught about their inherent union with God and will find all kinds of self-hating reasons to deny it. Only the true self can dare to believe the gospel’s good news.
The false self is characterized by separateness. Jewish and Christian traditions call this state of disconnectedness “sin.” When we’re separated from our deepest being, we are in a state of sin or alienation. When we are disconnected from our true self in God, we look for various false and addictive ways to fill our emptiness. The small or false self is who we think we are, but our thinking does not make it so. It is our identity created through culture, education, class, race, friends, gender, clothes, and money. That’s all that Adam and Eve had once they left the garden where they walked with God. But let’s not feel too bad for them or even guilty ourselves. It seems that we have to leave the garden. We have to create a false self to get started; the trouble is that we take it far too seriously. It is always passing away—in stages and then all at once at death. Only the true self is eternal. We all suffer from a terrible case of mistaken identity.
The true self is characterized by communion and deep contentment. It’s okay, right here, right now. The true self is the realigned self; and religion’s main purpose is to lead us to experience this self, which is who we are in God and who God is in us. It has to do with participating in a Universal Being that is beyond our being. Ultimately, our lives are not about us. We are about life! That doesn’t mean we stay in the true self twenty-four hours a day. Life is three steps forward and two steps backward. Yet once we know the big picture, we will never be satisfied with the little picture.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “True Self, False Self,” Radical Grace 25, no. 4, (2012): 39, 40, 41.
