What is to be our true identity?

Are you in Christ? Do you believe in His name? Have you given Him the confidence of your heart? If so, you have "eternal life" — you are "a new creature" — "old things are passed away." God does not see a single shred of the old thing remaining for you. "All things are become new, and all things are of God." You may say you do not feel that old things are all passed away. We reply, God says they are, and it is your happy privilege to believe what He says, and "reckon" yourself to be what He declares you are. God speaks according to that which is true of you in Christ. He does not see you in the flesh, but in Christ. There is absolutely nothing before the eye of God but Christ: and the very weakest believer is viewed as part of Christ, just as your hand is a part of your body. You have no existence before God apart from Christ — no life — no righteousness — no holiness — no wisdom — no power. Apart from Him, you have nothing, and can be nothing. In Him you have all and are all; you are thoroughly identified with Christ. Marvellous fact! Profound mystery! Most glorious truth! It is not a question of attainment or of progress. It is the settled and absolute standing of the feeblest member of the Church of God. True, there are various measures of intelligence, experience, and devotedness; but there is only one life, one standing, one position before God, and that is Christ. There is no such thing as a higher or lower Christian life. Christ is the believer's life, and you cannot speak of a higher or a lower Christ. We can understand the higher stages of Christian life; but there is no spiritual intelligence in speaking of a higher Christian life.

In Christ is new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). There “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;” new nature, new life, new relationships, new affections. And all these things are of God. The man in Christ is of God, and everything connected with him. In Adam is old creation: old, fallen, sinful, defiled, dead, and lost. In Christ is new, and “as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

"In Christ" is new creation, a contrast to being "in Adam" (1 Cor. 15:22) the head of the first creation. In new creation, "old things are passed away - all things are become new." He is not speaking of the experience of a believer, but of his new position. Some have been deeply frustrated in trying to apply this to daily experience, for manifestly our present body is still connected with Adam and the first creation, and the fleshly nature is still with us. But positionally we are now introduced permanently into this new creation by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, and this is henceforth our proper sphere of life - Christ Himself the Head, and therefore the Object to attract the heart. The circumstances into which I am introduced are those entirely new; and having a new nature as born of God, this is itself a vital connection with this blessed new creation.

Yet, in another way, we may surely say as to the Christian, that the man that was and the man that is are total opposites. I was a sinner in my sins, freely following the evil that I loved: I am a child of God, with a new nature, new affections, and a new object. Between these two persons there is a wide interval indeed. The first is what Scripture calls "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" (Eph. 4:22); the second is styled "the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24), and "renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him who created him, where … Christ is all and in all" (Col. 3:10-11). The first it speaks of as being "crucified with Christ," as it does of our "having put off the old man with his deeds" (Rom. 3:6; Col. 3:9.*) The second, similarly, it speaks of our "having put on." What we were we are not, and never can be again. But while this is happily true of us, it is also true that the "flesh" — the old nature — we have in us still, and shall have, till the body of humiliation is either dropped, or changed into the glorified likeness of the Lord's own body.

In the first creation we see man and his responsibility. In the new creation, all things are of God, and man is reconciled by Jesus Christ unto Himself. We want to have the power of this in our souls, to live as belonging to the new creation, as reconciled by God to Himself, all that belonged to the old creation for ever gone to faith. "Old things are passed away; behold, all are become new."

Nothing is of deeper importance at the commencement of our Christian history than that we should accept, with some apprehension of its greatness, that the man that was under judgment is removed from the eye of God in judgment. We have to ponder, in order to realize the magnitude of it, and when we do believe it as a truth, another thing of equal importance is made known to us - that not only is the old man completely removed from the eye of God, but that by the Holy Ghost we are in Christ a new creation by the power of God. If we keep these two together we have a great start; one man is gone and Another is brought in, and this is established to us by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

The believer, therefore, is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit — he is in Christ; he has died out of his old Adam standing in the death of Jesus, and has been quickened, raised up, and seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He has been brought out, and brought in. Hence scripture speaks of us as "accepted in the Beloved," "complete in him," "preserved in Christ Jesus," and "sanctified in Christ Jesus." We are a new creation in Him who is Head of all principality and power, are always before God in Christ, in all His acceptability and nearness, and loved by the Father as He loves the Son. This is where redemption has brought us, where divine perfect love has set us, so that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. We have died unto sin, died with Christ, and are alive unto God in Him. Having received remission of sins, we are united to Christ by the Holy Ghost, joined to the Lord — one spirit. This is a man in Christ. "We were in the flesh," but having died with Christ, and risen with Him, we have eternal life in Him, and are united to Him by the Spirit.

The blessed position of the believer in Christ is abundantly taught in scripture. And faith asks nothing more than the plain word of God. Our own frames and feelings would only mislead us on this all important subject; and doubts and fears would only be to doubt the work of redemption, on which the truth of our oneness with Christ Is based. Being one with Him as risen from the dead and exalted on high, we are partakers with Him of the same life and privileges before God. It is plainly stated, for example, that Christ is our life. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear." If, then, the question be raised as to whether we have eternal life, the believer may reply by asking the question, "Has Christ eternal life? for the word of God affirms that Christ is our life." Again, as to our oneness in righteousness. We are "made the righteousness of God in him." As to acceptance, we are "accepted in the beloved." As to position, we "sit together in heavenly places in Christ." Observe the form of the expression. "In Christ - in him." And mark especially the fulness of the following verses. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1: 30) "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." (Col. 2: 10) "In him," observe, who is above "all principality and power," even above the angels that never sinned.

By faith in Christ and His work, the believer receives as a gift of God eternal life, which is Christ himself (1 John 5:11). Having put off the "old man", the believer puts on the "new man" (Ephesians 4:23). He becomes a child of God (John 1:12), and is made part of the family

It is only by the surpassing riches of the grace of God that any of us are His children; and because it is wholly of grace, it must be therefore on the principle of faith, and not of works. Hence we read, "Ye are all the children [sons] of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:26.) It is, however, very blessed to know it on the authority of the word of God as a divine certainty; but more blessed still to have the enjoyment of this new and everlasting relationship by the truth brought home to our hearts in the power of the Holy Ghost. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." Another inspired apostle says, "Beloved, now are we the sons [children] of God." (Rom. 8:16; 1 John 3:2.) It is scarcely possible that anything can be more simply or more definitely stated. There is no "if" or "but" in the sentence; no "hoping to be" or room for the shadow of a "doubt." The fact is unmistakably set forth, that all who truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are "children of God." Let us never forget that this is what the Spirit of God teaches, and it is therefore God's truth, and not man's opinion. Till we receive what God says about the death and bloodshedding of His own Son, and because He says it, we are not believers, not children of God. But having been born of the Spirit, and having received the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit is given to indwell us as God's seal, His anointing, the earnest of the inheritance, to lead us also and teach us, so that we might know and enjoy, on the authority of Scripture, our new and everlasting relationship of children. He witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God; and it is a never-ending source of holy enjoyment, thanksgiving, and praise. In this way the soul begins to know God as Father. "Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. 4:6.)