It is essential to understand that when we accept God's forgiveness and choose to follow Jesus, we are a new creation -- who we are before God has completely changed.

WHY IS UNDERSTANDING THIS TRUTH IMPORTANT?

We can experience all kinds of obstacles in our life and walk with God when we fail to understand and accept the truth that God makes us new when we choose to follow Him. The most common of these problems are: feeling “dirty”, guilty, unworthy, discouraged; finding ourselves living like we did before we had Christ; believing that God is disappointed with us or that we’re not good enough for Him; feeling spiritually “dead”; approaching situations with the same mindset and actions as you did before Christ; and experiencing guilt and defeat in our Christian life.

Usually, the root problem of these difficulties is not accepting and living out the truth that we are a new creation.

THE TRUTH: WE ARE A NEW CREATION

When we are saved, we are a changed person! Our entire spiritual identity has been altered. When we don’t understand this truth, we are likely to believe that God doesn’t love us because we’ve messed up, or that our old spiritual status is true of us as soon as we sin. If we believe these lies, we end up living in the mindset and lifestyle we did before we were saved; if we see ourselves as sinner, we’ll act like one.

We need to resist lies about who we are by thanking God that we ARE a new creation! The truth about how Christ has changed our spiritual state gives us great worth and will lead to the life of freedom and joy that God intended for us to live.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” This verse clearly states that we are no longer who we used to be:

We were spiritually dead, enemies of God, and condemned to eternal death…but Christ has made us spiritually alive!

Ephesians 2.4-5 – But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

1 John 3.1 – How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

John 15.13-15 – “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

We were intimidated by God and what He thought of us…but because of our new standing, we can approach Him with confidence because He has forgiven us completely.

Ephesians 3.12 – In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

God saw us as sinful…but because of Christ’s work on the cross, it’s as if when God looks at us, He sees His son Jesus.

Colossians 1.22 – But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

Ephesians 1.4 – For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight…

We will still make mistakes, but if we are saved, God sees us as righteous.

Because we are a new creation in Christ, our life will change. Galatians 2.20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…” This means that we have died to ourselves and our sinful nature and that, instead, Christ is living in us and directing our lives. Ephesians 4.22-24 says, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

NEXT: Our Identity: Freedom From Sin

So how do I learn to make this truth part of my life?