Who Are You 8 - Our Real Identity

Hayden Williams, our grandson

Over the past few posts we've talked about Adam and Eve having a perfect connection with God - until the fall. Then, we looked at the description of the natural man controlled by self and satan . Our last post emphasized the importance of the natural man being replaced by the new creation. At the controls of the committed Christian's life is the Creator of the Universe. The new birth (beginning a walk with Christ) sees a resurrected spirit dimension that exercises control of and renews the mind, which in turn affects emotions, behavior and bodily functions. (We also know that a Christian can choose to run his own life. When we do that we learn from the teacher named "consequences.")

Having been a college basketball coach for years, indulge my desire to use a coaching analogy to explain the "Christ in me" phenomenen. NCAA rules state that a college basketball member cannot start practice before October 15. Yet, if you are on a campus before then, you’ll observe the basketball team going through all kinds of activities - legally.

Earlier that day, the coach has called his captain in and explained what he wanted done that afternoon. The captain carried out the coaches wishes and organized the team in conditioning drills or scrimmage, whatever the coach had required.

Stretch your theology a bit and see the spirit of the new creation indwelt by the Holy Spirit as the coach. The soul is captain and the body is player. The captain tells the player to carry out functions of the coach. The inner man (captain) directed by the indwelling Christ (Holy Spirit), empowers the body (player) to function at peace with itself and its environment. The coach, with all his experience, wisdom and power, is actually living through the captain and player, producing supernatural living.
Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, adequacy reach out from the coach, not only affecting captain and players’ attitudes and behavior, but spreading out to others for a redemptive ministry.

Jealousy, inadequacy, tension, laziness, etc., begin to disappear. Others observe the changing process. Interest is aroused. Others are brought to experience the new birth; spiritual growth is stimulated in dormant Christians because of the change observed in a person growing in Christ.

This sounds so wonderful and freeing. The old man (the person we were before coming to faith in Christ) is dead. Our essential being now is single nature, new creation. David Needham in his book "Birthright"says, “A Christian is not simply a person who gets forgiveness, who gets to go to heaven, who gets the Holy Spirit, who gets a new nature. Mark this - a Christian is a person who has become someone he was not before. He is a saint, a born child of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light, a citizen of heaven.”

Question: Are you and I experiencing the benefits of being a divine masterpiece?