YOUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST IS NOT A GOAL, IT'S A STARTING POINT.
Most Christians spend their entire lives working toward something the new birth already made them. They strive for a righteousness they already possess. They pursue a holiness they already carry. They treat their identity n Christ as a destination they have not yet reached - and the enemy never has to work hard to keep them defeated. Because a believer who is working toward their identity will never walk in their authority.
The church has produced generations of believers who are working towards something they already are. They are striving for a righteousness they already possess. They are pursuing a holiness they already carry. They are trying to become something that the new birth already made them. And the enemy has not had to work hard to keep them defeated. Because a believer who is working toward their identity will never walk in their authority. A believer who treats who they are in Christ as a destination they have not yet reached will spend their entire Christian life in the posture of a beggar when they were born into the posture of a king.
And this is not a minor theological error. This is the central misunderstanding that governs most of the Christian life because everything flows from identity.
Every prayer is shaped by what you believe you are.
Every declaration is colored by what you believe you carry. Every act of faith is either empowered or crippled by your answer to the most fundamental question in the Christian life. Not what can God do, bụt who are you in Christ right now.
This is identified as the root problem with devastating clarity. We have preached condemnation and sin so long that we do not know how to preach righteousness and to tell people what they are in Christ. When someone does tell them, they feel it is false teaching." The church has been so saturated with the consciousness of what it was before salvation that it has never entered the consciousness of what it became at salvation. And the result is a body of believers who know the cross intellectually but have never entered the new creation experientially.
Who know they are forgiven but have never grasped that forgiveness was only the beginning. Who know they are saved but have never discovered what they were saved into. Because salvation is not the destination. Salvation is the starting line. The new birth is not the finish line of the Christian life. It is the entrance. It is the door through which the believer steps into a completely new order of being, a new species, a new class, a new identity so total, so complete, so legally established before heaven.
It makes the believer a partaker of God's own nature, carrying His righteousness, His wisdom, His authority, His love, His life. Not as future rewards to be earned, but as present and possessions to be occupied.
And the moment you begin to see this, the moment the eyes of your understanding are enlightened to who the new birth made you rather than who you are still trying to become, the posture of your entire Christian life shifts at its foundation. This is what we are covering today : what we are in Christ.
The new creation identity and what it means to live from it rather than work toward it. And by the time this teaching is finished, you will understand not only that your identity in Christ is real, but that it was never a goal. It was always a starting point and everything changes the moment you begin to live from that starting point rather than straining toward it.
Now before we go into the scriptures, I want you to sit with a picture that captures everything this teaching is about.
Imagine a man who has inherited a vast estate. The deed is in his name. The title is legally his. The house, the land, the resources, all of it transferred to him the moment the inheritance was established, legally complete, irrevocably his. And he is standing outside the gate in the rain, knocking, asking to be let in, wondering whether he is worthy enough to enter, performing religious activity in the hope that someday he will be considered deserving of what the inheritance already gave him.
That is the picture of most of the church in relation to the new creation identity. The inheritance has been established. The deed is in your name. Everything that belongs to Christ belongs to you by virtue of being in HIM legally, completely right now.
And most believers are still standing outside the gate, still knocking, still striving, still treating the finished work as something they have not yet qualified for.
This teaching is the key that opens the gate. Not because it gives you something new, because it shows you what you already have, what you already are, what the new birth already made you, and what it looks like to finally walk through the door.
2 Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
Be precise about the Greek word for new here. It does not mean new in time like a new car that is the latest model of an existing design. It means new in kind, a different category of being, a species that did not exist before the new birth.
Not an improved version of the old man. Not a reformed version of the sinner, a new creation as distinct from the old creation as light is from darkness.
As life is from death, as the nature of God is from the nature of Adam. And this new creation does not carry the identity of the old man as its starting point. It carries the identity of Christ as its starting point.
It does not begin from weakness and work toward strength. It begins from strength.
It does not begin from unrighteousness and work toward righteousness. It begins from righteousness.
It does not begin from defeat and work toward victory. It begins from victory.
This is what the denominational church has missed. Not partially, almost entirely. The evangelical tradition has been so focused on getting people saved, on bringing them to the starting line that it never taught them what the starting line actually means. It never showed them what they became the moment they crossed it. It never unpacked the staggering legal, spiritual, and practical implications of being a new creation in Christ.
And so generation after generation of born again believers have stood at the starting line, waiting for the race to begin, not knowing they were already running from a position of absolute advantage, carrying everything they would ever need, backed by heaven's full authority, indwelt by the life of God Himself.
What we are in Christ.
It is God's vision for you to enjoy the fullness of this new creation's privileges, not work toward them. Enjoy them. Privilege is not something you earn. Privilege is something you occupy by virtue of who you are.
And who you are in Christ is not determined by your performance, your consistency, your spiritual track record, or the quality of your prayer life last week.
Who you are in Christ is determined entirely by what the new birth made you legally, permanently, irrevocably in the sight of heaven.
The new creation fact gives to you all that it means to Jesus Christ and the Father God whether you know it or not.
But you only enjoy what you know. You only walk in what you see. You only live from what has become revelation rather than merely information.
And here is the distinction. There is a difference between knowing something theologically and inhabiting it experientially.
Most believers know they are new creations theologically. They can quote 2 Corinthians 5:17. (if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.)
They have heard it preached. They have written it in their journals. They have said amen to it from the pew. But they are not inhabiting it.
They are not living from it. They are not making decisions, facing the enemy, approaching God or speaking to circumstances from the consciousness that they are a new creation, a different species, a being that carries the nature and life of God as a present reality.
And the reason is simple. Information about who you are in Christ does not automatically become the governing reality of your life. It has to become revelation. It has to move from the mind into the spirit. It has to shift from something you know to something you are.
And that shift from information to revelation is what this teaching is designed to produce. Because when 2 Corinthians 5:17 (if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.) becomes revelation rather than information. When new creation is not just a theological category, but the living reality you wake up in every morning, everything about how you approach God, face opposition, speak to circumstances, and conduct your daily life changes permanently.
Old things are passed away, not some things, not most things, old things. All things are become new.
Not improving toward new, not working toward new, already new, right now in Christ.
Ephesians 2:10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, his workmanship.
Now stop at those two words and received an entire revelation from them.
¶ "If you are His workmanship, you are satisfactory to HIM. He is pleased with you not because of what you have done, but because of what He has made.
A craftsman is not ashamed of His work when the work is complete.
He does not look at what he has made and say, "This is almost good enough. This needs more effort before I can be pleased with it."
And the new creation in Christ is God's completed work, not God's work in progress, not God's ongoing project that requires your cooperation to eventually reach an acceptable standard. His workmanship created, finished, complete in Christ Jesus.
Now go to Colossians 2:10. And ye are complete in him. complete, not becoming complete, not complete when you have grown enough spiritually, not complete when you have overcome enough sin or accumulated enough years of Christian maturity, but already complete right now in HIM. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. Colossians 2:9 states that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. This verse emphasizes the belief in the complete divinity of Christ, affirming that He embodies the essence of God.
And ye are complete in HIM, which means the completeness of Christ is your completeness.
The wisdom of Christ is your wisdom.
The righteousness of Christ is your righteousness.
The authority of Christ is your authority.
The life of Christ is your life.
Not as a future inheritance to be claimed at the end of a long process of spiritual development.As a present, legal already established reality that you occupy by virtue of being in HIM.
Now, here is the illustration used that makes this unmistakably practical. Imagine a father who has deposited everything his child will ever need into an account in the child's name. The money is already there. The resources are already present. The supply is already established.
And the child keeps coming to the father asking, "Please give me some money. Please give me some provision. Please give me what I need."
And our Father God can only respond. "It is already in your account. All you need to do is draw from it." That is precisely how most believers approach their identity in Christ.
They keep asking God to make them righteous when the account of righteousness is already full.
They keep asking God to make them strong when the strength of Christ is already deposited in their spirit.
They keep asking God to give them wisdom. When Christ who is the wisdom of God according to 1 Corinthians 1:30 already lives in them and God is not refusing to give. He is saying it is already in the account. Stop asking for what you already have. Start drawing from what I already deposited. This is the shift from identity as a goal to identity as a starting point.
And it is not merely a shift in theology. It is a shift in posture, a shift in approach, a shift in how you open your mouth, how you face the enemy, how you pray, and how you conduct every moment of your daily life. His workmanship complete in Him right now, not a goal, but a starting point.
Now, let me show you why this matters beyond theology. Because most believers hear complete in him and immediately the religious mind pushes back. It says, "But I still sin, but I still struggle. But I still fall short in so many areas. How can I be complete?"
And the answer is this.
Complete in him does not mean your behavior is perfect. It means your standing before God is perfect because it is not based on your behavior. It is based on his. Your completeness is the completeness of Christ. Your righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. Your standing before the Father God is the standing of the son because you are in the Son. And our Father looks at you and sees what He sees when He looks at Jesus Christ. Not your failures, not your inconsistencies, not the gap between who you are and who you are becoming. He sees His workmanship created, finished, complete.
And the believer who grasps this, who truly receives it in their spirit as a present reality rather than a future hope, stops approaching God with apology and starts approaching HIM with the boldness that Hebrews 4:16 commands.
Bold, not because you are perfect, bold because your standing is perfect. Not because you have earned access, but because the blood of Jesus established access that nothing can revoke. 1 Corinthians 1:30. Of HIM are ye in Christ Jesus who was made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Four things, four present realities, four starting points that most believers have been treating as destinations.
Christ has been made unto you wisdom from God. Your starting point is not confusion, not inadequacy, not the constant need to figure things out on your own. Christ who is the wisdom of God lives in your spirit.
Which means your starting point is access to divine wisdom for every decision, every challenge, every situation you will ever face. Not wisdom you earn through years of study. Not wisdom you accumulate through experience. the wisdom of God Himself available to you as a present resource because Christ who is that wisdom lives inside you. James 1 verse 5 confirms it. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally. Not let him strive for wisdom. Not let him develop wisdom over decades of spiritual discipline. Ask draw from the account. The wisdom is already deposited.
Christ has been made unto you righteousness. Your starting point is not unworthiness, not the constant sense that you do not quite measure up, not the nagging consciousness that your standing before God is conditional on yesterday's performance. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:21, present tense, legal standing, not a reward for consistent behavior, a gift of grace established by the cross of Jesus Christ and received through faith, and it cannot be revoked by your failures because it was never based on your performance.
The believer who knows this, who has received righteousness consciousness rather than sin consciousness, approaches God differently, resists the enemy differently, speaks differently, lives differently because your identity does not fluctuate with your behavior.
Your behavior is meant to flow from your identity. Christ has been made unto you sanctification.
Your starting point is not moral impurity working toward holiness. You have been set apart, separated unto God as a present reality through your union with Christ, sanctified, holy, belonging to God, not as a goal you are pursuing, but as a status you already occupy. Christ has been made unto you redemption.
Your starting point is not bondage, not the authority of the enemy over your life, not the claims that darkness once held over you. You have been purchased back, translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. Colossians 1:13.
Delivered, redeemed. Every claim the enemy once held over your life canceled at the cross. Every legal ground he once occupied in your life evicted by the blood.
Four starting points. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Not four destinations you are working toward through spiritual effort.
Four present realities you are drawing from. Because Christ who embodies all four has been made unto you everything you will ever need.
This is your starting point, not where you hope to arrive, where you already are in Christ.
Now here is the question most believers never ask. If all of this is already mine, why does my daily experience not reflect it? And the answer is simple. You only experience what you know. You only walk in what you see. The reality is established in the legal realm. But the experience of that reality is governed by your revelation of it.
A man who does not know he is rich lives like a poor man, even if the account is fulI.
A believer who does not know they are righteous lives under condemnation. Even though the righteousness of Christ is their legal standing, the gap between legal reality and experiential reality is closed by revelation.
The Word becoming real in your spirit. The truth moving from information in your mind to governing conviction in your inner man. And that is what this teaching is building.
Now let us see what changes practically when a believer shifts from treating identity as a goal to living from identity as a starting point. When identity is a goal, prayer becomes begging. You approach God as someone who is not yet worthy of what they are asking for. You ask hesitantly.
You qualify your requests with if it be your will. Not because you are genuinely uncertain of God's will, but because you are uncertain of your standing before him. You end your prayers wondering whether God heard, whether he will
