In this episode, I am continuing the series entitled “Walking in Grace and True Identity”.
In the previous episode, I left you with this question: What is the answer to avoiding self-sufficiency and independence, and eliminating our striving to be righteous? The answer is: understand your true identity.
A person born into the family of God receives a new identity:
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV84 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Note that Paul is saying in this passage that those who have trusted Christ have become a new creation. The root of the word “creation” is the word “create.” Creation doesn’t mean to improve something already in existence. It means to bring something new out of nothing. God didn’t simply change you when you were saved. He created a new person! You aren’t the same person you were before you became a Christian.
We can say that we are a new person when we accept Christ because each of us is a spiritual being. Just as God is a triune being (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), He created man as a triune being, because man is made in His image. Each of us consists of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. Your body has a “sense consciousness” that responds to the five natural senses. Your soul consists of your mind, will, and emotions. Your spirit was dead when you were born into this world and remained that way until God gave it life through the new birth experience:
Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, (5) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
The essence of your identity rests in your spirit. Someone has said that a person is a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body.
Since it is the presence of Jesus in our spirit that gives it life, our identity is simply that we are in Christ! He becomes our life.
Acts 17:28a HCSB For in Him we live and move and exist.
When we are born into God’s family, we receive many wonderful family traits, such as the following:
You are a saint. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul addresses the believers in Corinth as saints. In fact, throughout the New Testament believers are referred to as “saints.”You are God’s work of art. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). The word “workmanship” is translated from the Greek word poema, which literally means a fabric. God is weaving a wonderful tapestry in each believer’s life that displays His love, power, and grace. This Greek word poema is also from which we get our English word “poem.” God has made you to be a heavenly piece of poetry on this earth! You are truly God’s work of art!You are righteous and holy. You have received the “gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17). The Lord Jesus is your righteousness. When you received Him, your spirit was filled with righteousness. What you are, at the spirit level, determines your real identity. When you do not behave righteously, you are being inconsistent with who you really are. (More about that in a future episode.)You are fully accepted by God. You are accepted because God adopted you as one of His sons, because of the grace that He freely gave you in Christ (Ephesians 1:5-6). Because Christ has received you and He is fully accepted by the Father, you are fully accepted as well! You don’t need to change a thing about yourself for God to accept you. Your acceptance isn’t based on what you do, but on who you are.You are a new creation.2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV84 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
But, if, as a follower of Christ, I truly have all of these family traits, then why don’t I always act like who I really am? The answer is simple: I am believing a lie. And what is that lie? The answer, of course, is in the next episode. 😊
Today, I encourage you to “Reflect on This.”