Knowing Who You Are
Hello, my friends!
Today, I want to explore a topic that's absolutely fundamental to our identity as believers – the glorious truth of being a new creation in Christ. It's a concept that's often misunderstood or overlooked, but when we truly grasp it, it has the power to revolutionise how we see ourselves and live our daily lives.
You see, the Bible speaks about our nature in two distinct ways. First, there's our old nature, the one we inherited from Adam at birth. Ephesians 2:1-3 paints a pretty grim picture of this state: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
But here's the incredible news – when we're born again, we receive a brand new nature! We become, as 2 Peter 1:4 tells us, “partakers of the divine nature.” This isn't just a slight improvement or a spiritual makeover. No, it's a complete transformation. As Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Let that sink in for a moment, friends. You're not just a slightly better version of your old self. You're an entirely new creation! It's as if God hit the reset button on your very essence. You've been grafted into Christ, joined with Him in an unbreakable spiritual union. As 1 Corinthians 6:17 puts it, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”
This new nature is radically different from our old one. Where we were once spiritually dead, now we're alive in Christ. Where we were once darkness, Ephesians 5:8 tells us we are now light in the Lord. It's a complete reversal of our spiritual condition!
Now friends, here's where it gets really mind-blowing. This new creation – the real you in Christ – cannot sin and doesn't even want to! John makes this crystal clear in 1 John 3:9: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
But wait a minute, you might be thinking. If that's true, why do I still struggle with sin? It's a great question, and it leads us to a crucial distinction we need to understand – the difference between our identity and our behaviour.
Our identity is who we are in Christ, in our spirit. It's perfect, sinless, and incorruptible. The writer of Hebrews even describes us as “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23). This is our true self, our core identity that can never be tainted by sin.
Our behaviour, on the other hand, takes place in the realm of our physical body, our flesh. This is where the residue of sin still dwells, and it's why we can still be tempted and sometimes fall into sin. When this happens, it creates a sort of civil war within us. Our new nature, which is aligned with God's heart, hates the sin. Meanwhile, our flesh wars against our spirit.
Paul describes this internal conflict beautifully in Romans 7:22-23: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
In the midst of this struggle, Satan often tries to trick us into basing our identity on our behaviour. But we must resist this deception! Our identity is not determined by what we do, but by what Christ has done for us. Our behaviour doesn't define us – Jesus' work on the cross does.
So how do we navigate this tension between our perfect identity in Christ and our imperfect behaviour? The key is to continually look to God's Word as a mirror that reflects our true identity. James 1:23-24 speaks to this: “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”
You see, when we forget who we truly are in Christ, it becomes much harder to live as we should. But as we behold our true identity in the mirror of God's Word, something amazing happens. We begin to be transformed, our behaviour gradually aligning more and more with our true identity in Christ. As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
This transformation isn't about striving or trying harder in our own strength. It's about allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us, bringing our outer life into alignment with our inner reality. It's a process, friends, and it takes time. But as we consistently remind ourselves of who we are in Christ, we'll find ourselves naturally living out that identity more and more.
Think about it this way: if you believed, deep in your core, that you were royalty, wouldn't it change the way you carried yourself? The way you spoke? The choices you made? In the same way, when we truly grasp our identity as new creations in Christ, it profoundly impacts every aspect of our lives.
This truth has massive implications for how we deal with sin and temptation. When we're tempted, we don't have to white-knuckle our way through it or rely on willpower alone. Instead, we can remind ourselves, “This isn't who I am anymore. I'm a new creation in Christ. Sin has no claim on me.” As we do this, we'll find the power of temptation gradually losing its grip on us.
It also changes how we approach spiritual growth. Instead of focusing on behaviour modification or trying to clean up our act, we can focus on getting to know who we already are in Christ. As we do this, our behaviour will naturally begin to align with our true identity.
My friends, this is the key to Christian growth – not striving in our own strength, but continually beholding who we already are in Christ. As we do this, the Holy Spirit works in us, bringing our outer life into alignment with our inner reality.
So today, I encourage you to take a good, long look in the mirror of God's Word. See yourself as God sees you – perfect, righteous, and holy in Christ. Let this truth sink deep into your heart. Meditate on it. Let it permeate your thoughts and emotions. Because the more we know who we are, the more we'll be empowered to live it out.
Remember friends, you can't truly be who you are until you know who you are. And in Christ, you are a glorious new creation, dearly loved and fully accepted by your Heavenly Father. You are complete in Him, lacking nothing. You are seated with Christ in heavenly places, far above all principality and power.
Rest in that truth today, my brothers and sisters, and let it transform the way you live. Let it fuel your worship, empower your prayers, and shape your interactions with others. You are a new creation, and that changes everything!
Be blessed, my friends. May you walk in the fullness of your identity in Christ today and always.
Phil