Introduction
One of the most important questions a disciple must answer is not simply, “What do I believe?” but, “Who am I because of what Christ has accomplished?”
Many believers attempt to understand themselves primarily through their behavior. When they obey God, they feel close to Him and confident in their identity. When they fail, they assume that their relationship with God has changed, that they have returned to their former condition, or that their failure reveals who they truly are. This produces an unstable spiritual life governed by performance, guilt, fear, and repeated attempts to recover God’s acceptance.
The gospel offers a different starting point. Scripture teaches that humanity was created in the image of God, that human life and vocation were corrupted through Adam’s rebellion, and that a new humanity has been established in Jesus Christ. The believer’s identity is therefore not determined by personal history, emotions, religious performance, or present struggles. It is determined by union with Christ.
This does not mean that every believer immediately behaves consistently with this new identity. The New Testament openly addresses the conflict between the works of the flesh and the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit. However, this conflict must be understood from the reality of what God has already accomplished in Christ. The believer is not attempting to become a new creation through good behavior. The believer is learning, through the Holy Spirit, to live consistently with the new creation he or she has already become.
This class will trace that story through three essential movements:
Created → Fallen → Restored in Christ
How to Complete This Class
This class is designed for self-paced study. Do not rush through it merely to complete the material. Read every assigned passage in its full context, write your responses to the reflection questions, and complete the exercises before proceeding to the final assessment.
You will need:
- A Bible
- A notebook or digital journal
- Approximately 90–120 minutes
- A quiet environment for reading and reflection
You may divide the class into several sessions. If you do, complete each major section before stopping so that the biblical argument remains clear.
Learning Objectives
After completing this class, you should be able to:
- Explain what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God.
- Describe humanity’s original vocation within creation.
- Explain the nature and consequences of Adam’s rebellion.
- Distinguish humanity’s created dignity from its fallen condition.
- Explain why moral improvement cannot solve humanity’s problem.
- Describe Jesus as the last Adam and the beginning of a new humanity.
- Explain what it means for a believer to be “in Christ.”
- Distinguish the fruit of the Spirit from the works of the flesh.
- Distinguish spiritual identity from conduct and maturity.
- Explain why the believer’s identity is established by Christ rather than personal performance.
- Identify the believer’s restored vocation within God’s Kingdom.
Opening Question
Before reading the lesson, complete the following sentence:
“When I think about who I am before God, the first words that come to mind are_____________________”
Do not attempt to give the answer you believe a Christian is supposed to give. Write what you actually think and feel.
Now consider:
- Did you define yourself by Christ or by your conduct?
- Did you begin with your failures or with God’s original intention?
- Did you describe your relationship with God as secure or uncertain?
- Did your answer reflect belonging, fear, gratitude, shame, purpose, or confusion?
- Who or what taught you to think about yourself this way?
Foundational Scriptures
Read the following passages before continuing:
- Genesis 1:26–28
- Genesis 2:7–15
- Genesis 3:1–24
- Psalm 8:3–6
- Romans 5:12–21
- Romans 6:1–14
- Romans 8:1–14
- 1 Corinthians 15:45–49
- 2 Corinthians 5:14–21
- Galatians 5:16–25
- Ephesians 2:1–10
- Ephesians 4:20–24
- Colossians 1:12–14
- Colossians 3:1–11
As you read, mark every expression that describes:
- Humanity in creation
- Humanity in Adam
- Jesus as the last Adam
- The believer in Christ
- The flesh
- The Holy Spirit
- The new life believers are called to live
Why Identity Matters
Identity is the internal answer to the question, “Who am I?” That answer influences the way a person interprets God, failure, relationships, responsibility, temptation, correction, and purpose.
A person who believes acceptance must constantly be earned will approach God through anxiety and performance. A person who believes failure defines identity will interpret every struggle as evidence of spiritual rejection. A person who sees salvation only as forgiveness may never recognize that Christ also restored humanity to relationship, purpose, spiritual life, and Kingdom responsibility.
Biblical identity does not begin with self-esteem or positive thinking. It begins with God’s declaration and God’s action. We do not discover our identity by looking deeper into ourselves. We understand it by looking at God’s intention in creation and at what He accomplished through Jesus Christ.
The biblical story does not begin with humanity as sinful, worthless, and rejected. It begins with humanity created intentionally, bearing God’s image and entrusted with meaningful responsibility. Sin seriously corrupted human life, but sin was not the Creator’s original definition of humanity. To understand redemption correctly, we must first understand what God created and intended to restore.
Created in the Image of God
God Is the Starting Point of Human Identity
Genesis begins with God. Before Scripture tells us anything about humanity, it reveals a God who creates with intention, establishes order, produces life, and calls His creation good.
When God creates humanity, He says:
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule…”
Human identity begins with God’s intention rather than human achievement. Adam and Eve did not earn the image of God. They did not achieve dignity through work, education, morality, social standing, or religious performance. Their value and vocation came from the One who created them.
This means human worth is received before it is expressed. Humanity’s significance does not originate in usefulness, productivity, talent, intelligence, possessions, or public recognition. These things may affect human experience, but they do not create human dignity.
To be made in God’s image means that human beings were created to reflect God’s character and represent His government within creation. Humanity was not created to replace God or exist independently from Him. Humanity was created to live in communion with God and to exercise entrusted authority under His rule.
Image and Likeness
The Hebrew word commonly translated as “image” is tselem. It can refer to a representation that makes an unseen ruler present within a particular territory. The word translated as “likeness,” demuth, emphasizes resemblance or correspondence.
These terms do not mean that God has a human body or that human beings possess divinity independently from Him. They communicate representation. Humanity was placed within creation to make God’s wisdom, goodness, order, creativity, and righteous government visible.
The image of God includes several interconnected dimensions:
- A relational dimension: humanity was created for communion with God and with one another.
- A representative dimension: humanity was commissioned to represent God within creation.
- A moral dimension: humanity was called to reflect God’s goodness and justice.
- A creative dimension: humanity was empowered to cultivate what God had made.
- A royal dimension: humanity received authority to govern under God.
- A priestly dimension: humanity occupied the place where God’s presence and creation met.
The image of God is therefore not merely a quality that human beings possess. It describes a relationship, a vocation, and a responsibility.
Reflection
Write your answers in complete sentences:
- What have you previously understood the image of God to mean?
- Which aspect of the image of God is most unfamiliar to you?
- How would your view of yourself change if you understood your life as a representation of God?
- What happens when people seek identity from achievement instead of receiving it from their Creator?
Created for Communion
Genesis presents humanity as living in the presence of God. Before there was religious ritual, institutional organization, or human government, there was communion between God and humanity.
Adam’s life originated in God. Genesis 2:7 says that God breathed into the human being the breath of life. Human life was never intended to function independently from divine life. Dependence upon God was not a weakness or defect. It was the proper order of creation.
This is important because modern culture often defines freedom as independence—the ability to define ourselves, determine our own good, and pursue fulfillment without external authority. Scripture presents a different vision. Human freedom reaches its proper expression when humanity lives in communion and agreement with God.
Human beings were also created for relationship with one another. The declaration that it was “not good” for the man to be alone reveals that isolation contradicts God’s intention. Identity is personal, but it is not individualistic. We were created to know, serve, honor, and share responsibility with others.
Sin would later introduce shame, accusation, competition, domination, and alienation into these relationships. These conditions were not part of the original design.
Created for Dominion and Stewardship
Genesis 1:26–28 connects the image of God with dominion. Humanity was commissioned to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and exercise authority over living creation.
Dominion must be interpreted through the character of the God humanity represents. God creates, orders, sustains, blesses, and produces life. Therefore, biblical dominion cannot mean exploitation, abuse, selfish control, or domination of other people. Authority separated from God’s character becomes corrupted power.
Genesis 2:15 says that Adam was placed in the garden to “work it and take care of it.” The Hebrew verbs carry the ideas of cultivating, serving, guarding, and preserving. Human authority was therefore a form of responsible stewardship. Adam was given something good and was expected to cultivate its possibilities faithfully.
Work did not begin as a punishment after sin. Work belongs to humanity’s original vocation. The pain, frustration, exploitation, and futility associated with work entered through the fall, but meaningful participation in creation existed before the fall.
Every legitimate area of human activity can therefore become a sphere of responsible representation: family, education, agriculture, science, art, technology, business, communication, community development, government, and care for creation. Humanity was created to receive what comes from God and cultivate it for His glory and the good of creation.
Knowledge Check
Choose the best answer.
Dominion in Genesis is best understood as:
A. Permission to exploit natural resources
B. Humanity’s right to control other people
C. Responsible authority exercised under God’s government
D. Freedom from accountability to God
The correct answer is C. Dominion is delegated authority. It must reflect the character, intention, and order of the One who delegates it.
Created With Purpose
Purpose begins with God’s intention, not personal ambition. We often ask, “What is my purpose?” as if purpose were a private assignment hidden somewhere inside us. Scripture first answers a larger question: “Why did God create humanity?”
Humanity was created to bear God’s image, live in communion with Him, cultivate creation, represent His rule, and extend His order. Individual callings exist within this larger human vocation.
A person may express that vocation as a parent, artist, teacher, business owner, pastor, scientist, mechanic, public servant, student, caregiver, or community leader. The specific expression may change across seasons, but the foundational vocation remains: represent God faithfully in the sphere entrusted to you.
Purpose is therefore larger than career, platform, or church position. It is possible to hold a religious office and fail to represent God’s character. It is also possible to perform ordinary work in a way that reveals God’s wisdom, goodness, justice, and creativity.
The Human Rebellion
The Fall Began With a Distorted View of God
Genesis 3 does not present sin as an accidental mistake or merely the violation of an arbitrary rule. The serpent first attacks humanity’s confidence in God’s word and character:
“Did God really say…?”
The temptation suggests that God is withholding something necessary and that humanity cannot trust His definition of what is good. The serpent presents independence as wisdom and obedience as deprivation.
The woman sees that the forbidden tree appears desirable for food, beauty, and wisdom. The desire for wisdom was not itself evil. The problem was the attempt to obtain and define wisdom independently from God.
This is the heart of the rebellion: humanity attempted to become the final authority for determining good and evil. Instead of receiving life, wisdom, and identity from God, humanity sought autonomy.
Sin is therefore deeper than isolated bad behavior. Wrong actions are expressions of a deeper disorder: creation attempting to function independently from its Creator.
What Changed After the Rebellion
The immediate consequences reveal what sin produced within human experience.
Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness and experienced shame. They hid from God in fear. Adam accused Eve, and indirectly accused God for giving her to him. Eve blamed the serpent. The relationship between man and woman became affected by tension and domination. Work became marked by frustration, pain, and resistance. Humanity was removed from the garden, and death entered human experience.
These consequences show sin operating in several directions:
- Alienation from God
- Distortion within the self
- Disorder between people
- Corruption of humanity’s relationship with creation
- Distortion of authority
- Captivity to fear, shame, and death
The fall affected more than Adam and Eve’s private spirituality. It corrupted humanity’s capacity to fulfill its vocation.
The Image Was Corrupted but Not Erased
Even after the fall, Scripture continues to treat human beings as bearers of God’s image. This is why every human life possesses dignity and why violence against another person is treated so seriously.
However, humanity no longer represented God faithfully. The image remained, but human nature, consciousness, desires, relationships, and government came under corruption. Humanity continued to exercise creativity and authority, but these capacities could now be used for idolatry, exploitation, oppression, destruction, and self-exaltation.
This distinction protects us from two errors. The first is imagining that fallen humanity is naturally capable of restoring itself through education, discipline, politics, religion, or moral effort. The second is treating human beings as worthless because of sin. Scripture takes sin with absolute seriousness while continuing to recognize the dignity of those God created.
Humanity did not cease to matter to God. Humanity became incapable of fulfilling its purpose faithfully apart from His intervention.
Humanity in Adam
The New Testament presents Adam as more than the first individual who committed a transgression. Adam stands as the representative head of the old humanity.
Romans 5 explains that through one man sin entered the world and death through sin. Adam’s rebellion opened human existence to the reign of sin and death. Those who came after Adam inherited a world and a human condition already disordered by alienation, corruption, and mortality.
This does not remove individual responsibility. Every person participates in the same rebellion by seeking life independently from God. Nevertheless, Paul’s argument is larger than a collection of personal failures. Humanity exists under a corporate condition that moral improvement alone cannot reverse.
The problem is not simply that human beings need better rules. Israel’s experience under the Law demonstrated that righteous commandments could identify transgression but could not create a new humanity. The Law could reveal the problem, but it could not regenerate the human heart.
Humanity needed more than information, inspiration, or forgiveness in isolation. Humanity needed a new representative, a new source of life, and a new creation.
Jesus Christ, the Last Adam
A New Beginning for Humanity
First Corinthians 15 calls Jesus “the last Adam.” This title reveals that Jesus came not only to help Adam’s descendants behave better, but to bring the old humanity’s history to its conclusion and establish a new humanity in Himself.
Where Adam distrusted God, Jesus lived in complete trust. Where Adam sought independence, Jesus lived in communion with the Father. Where Adam grasped, Jesus humbled Himself. Where Adam’s disobedience brought death, Jesus’ obedience produced righteousness and life.
Romans 5 places Adam and Christ in deliberate contrast:
| In Adam | In Christ |
|---|---|
| Disobedience | Obedience |
| Condemnation | Justification |
| Sin’s reign | Grace’s reign |
| Death | Life |
| Old humanity | New nature |
Jesus did not merely return humanity to its condition before the fall. In Christ, humanity is brought into union with the risen Son of God and receives the indwelling Holy Spirit. Redemption is not simply a return to Eden. It is humanity brought into the life and relationship revealed in Christ.
Jesus as True God and True Humanity
Jesus reveals both the Father and the human life humanity was created to live. When we look at Jesus, we see the character of God expressed in human life and human authority exercised in complete agreement with God.
Jesus exercises authority without exploitation. He confronts evil without becoming evil. He serves without surrendering His identity. He demonstrates compassion without compromising truth. He gives His life without losing His authority. He reveals dominion shaped by love, holiness, justice, service, and faithfulness.
For this reason, Christian identity cannot be understood apart from Jesus. He is not only the Savior who rescues humanity; He is the image according to which restored humanity is formed.
What It Means to Be “In Christ”
“In Christ” is one of the New Testament’s most important descriptions of the believer. It means more than believing facts about Jesus, attending church, or attempting to follow His example. It describes union, participation, and a change of spiritual location.
Through faith and the work of the Holy Spirit, the believer participates in Christ’s death and resurrection. Romans 6 explains that the old humanity was crucified with Christ so that believers would no longer live as slaves under sin’s dominion. The believer is now called to consider himself or herself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This does not mean the believer becomes divine or loses personal individuality. It means that Christ becomes the source, representative, and environment of the believer’s new life.
Second Corinthians 5:17 declares:
“If anyone is in Christ, there is new creation.”
Paul’s emphasis is not merely that the believer receives a better attitude or a second chance. In Christ, God brings forth something new. The believer now belongs to the new humanity represented by Jesus.
A Change of Dominion
Colossians 1:13 describes salvation as a transfer:
“He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
The believer has not simply received forgiveness while remaining spiritually located under the same authority. God has transferred the believer from one dominion into another.
This new position includes:
- A new relationship with God
- A new representative head
- A new source of life
- A new citizenship
- A new standing
- A new community
- A new vocation
- The indwelling Holy Spirit
Identity in Christ is therefore not a religious title added to the old life. It is the foundational reality from which the disciple must now learn to live.
The Fruit of the Spirit and the Works of the Flesh
Understanding the Believer’s Internal Conflict
At this point, an important question arises: If believers are new creations, why do they still struggle with anger, jealousy, pride, lust, selfishness, fear, dishonesty, and other destructive behaviors?
The New Testament does not deny this conflict. Galatians 5 describes a real opposition between the flesh and the Spirit. The presence of struggle does not prove that Christ’s work failed or that the believer has not received a new identity. It reveals that the believer must learn to walk according to the Spirit rather than continue responding through patterns, desires, and ways of thinking associated with the flesh.
Paul writes:
“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Notice that Paul addresses people who have already received the Spirit. He does not tell them to create a new identity through better conduct. He calls them to live from the new source of life God has already given them.
What Is the Flesh?
In this context, “flesh” does not simply mean the physical body. The Greek word sarx can refer to human life operating from its own resources and desires independently from God. It is humanity attempting to produce life, identity, righteousness, and fulfillment without dependence upon the Spirit.
The flesh includes learned patterns, disordered desires, false beliefs, self-protection, selfish ambition, and attempts to control life apart from God. These patterns do not disappear automatically from the mind when a person is born again. They must be confronted through truth, the renewal of the mind, obedience, community, and dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
The works of the flesh are the visible behaviors produced when these desires and patterns are permitted to govern. Galatians 5 includes sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, division, envy, drunkenness, and related conduct.
These works are serious. Grace does not require us to minimize or rename them. They contradict the character of Christ and damage individuals, families, churches, and communities. However, they must be addressed from the correct spiritual foundation.
What Is the Fruit of the Spirit?
Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit:
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Patience
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- Self-control
Paul speaks of the “fruit” in the singular. These qualities are not disconnected virtues that believers manufacture through discipline. Together, they describe the character of Christ produced in the believer through the life and work of the Holy Spirit.
Fruit grows from life. A branch does not produce fruit by pretending, straining, or attempting to earn its connection to the tree. It bears fruit because it participates in the life of the source. In the same way, Christian transformation flows from union with Christ and dependence upon the Spirit.
This does not make the believer passive. Walking by the Spirit involves attention, trust, obedience, surrender, and practice. But spiritual disciplines do not manufacture the life of Christ. They help believers submit their thoughts, desires, decisions, and actions to the life already present through the Spirit.
Works Reveal What Is Influencing Us; They Do Not Create Our Identity
The works of the flesh must not be confused with the believer’s identity. Conduct reveals what a person is yielding to, but behavior does not possess the authority to redefine what God has established in Christ.
When a believer responds with jealousy, that behavior must be confronted and rejected. However, the appropriate conclusion is not, “Jealousy is my true identity.” The appropriate response is, “This work of the flesh contradicts the life of Christ in me. I must bring my mind and conduct back into alignment with the Spirit.”
Likewise, when the fruit of the Spirit becomes visible, the believer should not conclude that personal effort has earned greater acceptance before God. The fruit reveals the Spirit’s transforming work and the believer’s growing maturity.
The question is not merely, “What did I do?” It is also, “What source am I yielding to?”
Reflection Exercise: Identify the Source
Think about a recent conflict or difficult decision.
Write brief answers to the following:
- What happened?
- How did you respond?
- Which works of the flesh were present, if any?
- What belief, fear, desire, or wound influenced that response?
- What fruit would the Holy Spirit produce in the same situation?
- What would it mean to walk by the Spirit if the situation occurred again?
- What truth about your identity in Christ must govern your next response?
From a “Sinner” Consciousness to New-Creation Consciousness
The distinction between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit prepares us to address a sensitive question: Should a believer continue to understand and describe himself or herself primarily as a sinner?
Scripture certainly teaches that all humanity has sinned and that no person is justified through moral achievement. No one comes to Christ because of personal righteousness. Salvation is entirely dependent upon God’s grace and Christ’s finished work. A healthy understanding of new identity must never become pride, denial of failure, or a claim of moral perfection.
However, the New Testament does not ordinarily address those who are in Christ by making “sinner” their primary identity. It calls them saints, children of God, beloved, righteous in Christ, new creations, members of Christ’s body, temples of the Holy Spirit, and citizens of God’s Kingdom.
This does not mean believers never fail or never produce works of the flesh. It means failure no longer possesses the authority to define their spiritual identity. “Sinner” accurately describes humanity’s condition apart from Christ and our dependence upon grace. It should not be used in a way that denies the new birth, minimizes union with Christ, or places believers perpetually under Adam’s identity.
A person’s primary identity determines the expected direction of life. If believers are taught that they remain sinners by nature and that sinful conduct simply confirms who they are, the works of the flesh may begin to feel inevitable. Spiritual growth becomes an endless attempt to behave better without confidence in the new life already given.
The gospel provides a stronger foundation. The believer can say:
“I was part of the humanity under sin’s dominion, and I was incapable of rescuing myself. Through grace, I have been united with Christ and received the Holy Spirit. I can still yield to the flesh, but the works of the flesh are inconsistent with who I have become. Therefore, I do not excuse them or build my identity around them. I bring them into submission to the life of Christ within me.”
The issue is not simply vocabulary. The deeper issue is consciousness: Are we interpreting ourselves primarily through Adam and failure, or through Christ and new creation?
Humility Without a False Identity
Some believers fear that abandoning “sinner” as their primary identity will produce arrogance. Biblical humility, however, is not denying what God has accomplished. Humility agrees with God.
It would be prideful to claim that we transformed ourselves. It is not prideful to confess that God has made us new through Christ. It would be deception to deny our failures. It is also a distortion to make failure more authoritative than God’s declaration.
A mature believer can say all of the following without contradiction:
- I could not save myself.
- I was saved entirely by grace.
- I can still behave inconsistently with Christ.
- I remain dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
- I must receive correction when my conduct is wrong.
- My failures do not undo the new birth.
- I am no longer under sin’s dominion.
- My identity is now established in Christ.
- I am responsible for bringing my conduct into agreement with that identity.
This is not sinless perfection. It is New Covenant identity.
Identity and Conduct
Conduct Should Flow From Identity
Religion often reverses the order of transformation:
Behave correctly → become acceptable → receive an identity.
The gospel establishes another order:
Receive grace → become new in Christ → learn to live from that identity.
Ephesians 4 does not instruct believers to create a new self. Paul tells them to put off the old patterns associated with their former way of life, be renewed in the attitude of their minds, and put on the new self that has been created according to God.
The new self has already been created. The believer’s responsibility is to reject conduct associated with the old humanity and embody the life consistent with the new.
This is why New Testament correction frequently follows an identity-based pattern:
- Because you are children of light, walk as children of light.
- Because you have been forgiven, forgive.
- Because you have been raised with Christ, seek what belongs to His life.
- Because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, honor God with it.
- Because you are one body, reject division.
- Because you have put on the new self, do not lie to one another.
The commands do not create the identity. They teach believers how to live consistently with it.
Maturity Is Not the Same as Identity
A newborn child possesses full human identity but has not reached full maturity. In the same way, a new believer genuinely belongs to Christ but must grow in wisdom, discernment, character, and obedience.
Immaturity may explain certain conduct, but it does not excuse it indefinitely. The purpose of discipleship is to help believers mature into a life that increasingly expresses Christ.
Confusing identity with maturity produces two opposite errors. Some people doubt their identity every time they recognize immaturity. Others use their identity as an excuse to resist growth and correction. The gospel permits neither response.
Identity provides the security from which growth becomes possible. Maturity is the increasing agreement between who the believer is in Christ and how the believer actually thinks, chooses, relates, and lives.
Conviction Without Condemnation
Romans 8:1 declares that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This does not mean the Holy Spirit ignores harmful behavior. It means He addresses believers from within reconciliation rather than threatening them with repeated rejection.
Condemnation attacks identity. It says:
- “This failure reveals who you really are.”
- “God has withdrawn from you.”
- “You must earn your way back.”
- “There is no real hope of change.”
Conviction brings conduct into the light while calling the believer toward alignment. It says:
- “This behavior contradicts the life of Christ in you.”
- “Bring this into the light.”
- “Receive truth and correction.”
- “Turn away from what produces death.”
- “Walk according to the Spirit.”
Condemnation pushes people to hide. Conviction invites truth, repentance, restoration, and transformation.
The Spirit does not use shame to recreate the separation Christ removed. He reveals what must change while testifying that believers belong to God and have received the power to live differently.
Repentance and Restored Alignment
Repentance is often presented as emotional suffering intense enough to persuade God to forgive again. The New Testament concept is deeper and more constructive.
The Greek word metanoia refers to a change of mind, perception, and direction. Repentance occurs when truth exposes false thinking and a person turns into agreement with God.
For the believer, repentance is not an attempt to be born again repeatedly. It is a return to agreement with the identity, truth, and life already received in Christ.
When believers produce works of the flesh, they should:
- Bring the conduct into the light without excuses.
- Recognize the false belief or disordered desire beneath it.
- Agree with God about the nature and consequences of the conduct.
- Reject the behavior as inconsistent with Christ.
- Receive correction without accepting condemnation.
- Make restitution or seek reconciliation where necessary.
- Yield to the Holy Spirit.
- Practice a new response consistent with the fruit of the Spirit.
Repentance is therefore not denial, self-punishment, or religious performance. It is a Spirit-enabled movement from falsehood into truth and from contradictory conduct into alignment.
The Believer’s New Identity
The New Testament uses multiple descriptions to communicate what God has accomplished in Christ. No single expression contains the entire reality.
New Creation
The believer participates in the new humanity inaugurated through Christ’s resurrection. This means the old order no longer possesses the final word over identity or destiny.
Child of God
The believer receives belonging, relationship, inheritance, and access to the Father. This identity replaces slavery and fear with the Spirit of adoption.
Righteous in Christ
The believer’s right standing with God rests upon Christ rather than personal performance. Righteousness is received before it becomes consistently expressed through conduct.
Reconciled
God has acted in Christ to remove hostility and restore relationship. The believer does not live attempting to persuade God to become reconciled again.
Sanctified
The believer has been set apart for God and is being formed by the Spirit into increasing consistency with that reality. Sanctification includes both an established position in Christ and an ongoing work of transformation.
Temple of the Holy Spirit
God does not merely visit the believer during religious experiences. The Spirit dwells within God’s people. The presence lost in the garden is restored and intensified through union with Christ.
Kingdom Citizen
The believer has been transferred into the Kingdom of God’s Son. This creates a new allegiance, culture, authority, and responsibility.
Member of Christ’s Body
Christian identity is personal but never isolated. Believers belong to one another and are called to serve, contribute, forgive, honor, and grow together.
Ambassador of Reconciliation
Those who have been reconciled become representatives of God’s reconciling work. Salvation restores both relationship and vocation.
Restored Identity Produces Restored Mission
God did not restore humanity merely so believers could enjoy private spiritual security. The restoration accomplished in Christ returns humanity to meaningful participation in God’s purpose.
Second Corinthians 5 connects new creation with reconciliation and then immediately connects reconciliation with mission. God reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. The restored become restorers; the reconciled become reconcilers; those who receive God’s life become representatives of that life.
This does not mean believers become the source of reconciliation. Christ remains the source, King, and center. Believers become participants and ambassadors.
Restored vocation includes:
- Representing Christ’s character
- Cultivating what God entrusts
- Bringing truth into deception
- Bringing reconciliation into hostility
- Bringing justice into exploitation
- Bringing responsible order into disorder
- Bringing creativity into stagnation
- Bringing service into selfish ambition
- Bringing hope into despair
- Bringing the life of the Kingdom into ordinary human activity
The disciple’s mission is not limited to church services. Every legitimate sphere of life becomes a place where restored humanity can reveal the character and government of God.
Common Distortions
“My failures tell me who I really am.”
Failures reveal areas of immaturity, deception, woundedness, or surrender to the flesh. They must be confronted, but they do not possess greater authority than God’s work in Christ.
“If I am a new creation, I should never struggle.”
New identity does not eliminate the need for renewal, discipleship, healing, correction, and maturity. The presence of conflict does not invalidate the new birth.
“Grace means my conduct is unimportant.”
Grace establishes identity and empowers transformation. Conduct matters because it either expresses or contradicts the life of Christ and affects other people.
“I must behave correctly so God will accept me.”
The gospel teaches that acceptance is received through Christ. Obedience is the fruit of reconciliation, not the price paid to obtain it.
“Calling myself a sinner keeps me humble.”
Humility is agreement with God, including agreement about human inability and Christ’s transforming work. Denying the new creation is not required for humility.
“Dominion means Christians should control society.”
Biblical dominion reflects the character of Jesus. It is expressed through stewardship, service, truth, justice, sacrifice, creativity, and reconciliation—not coercion or domination.
“My purpose is limited to church ministry.”
Human vocation began in creation before the formation of religious institutions. Church ministry is important, but God’s Kingdom purpose includes every sphere entrusted to humanity.
Personal Examination
Answer each question honestly and in complete sentences.
- Which has influenced your identity more deeply: God’s Word, your failures, your family history, religious teaching, personal achievement, or other people’s opinions?
- When you fail, do you move toward God or hide from Him? Why?
- Do you usually interpret correction as help toward maturity or as rejection of your identity?
- Which work of the flesh are you most likely to excuse by saying, “That is just who I am”?
- Which aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is least visible in your current relationships?
- Are you trying to earn something from God that Christ has already provided?
- In what area have you confused spiritual immaturity with permanent identity?
- What sphere of life has God entrusted to you for cultivation and responsible stewardship?
- How would your daily decisions change if you consciously understood yourself as a representative of Christ?
- What part of the old humanity’s way of thinking must be renewed in you?
Practical Exercise: From Identity to Alignment
Select one recurring behavior that does not reflect the character of Christ. It may involve anger, jealousy, avoidance, dishonesty, fear, sexual conduct, resentment, selfish ambition, people-pleasing, control, or another work of the flesh.
Complete the following table:
| Area | Your Response |
|---|---|
| Behavior | What do I repeatedly do? |
| Trigger | What situations usually awaken this response? |
| Underlying belief | What am I believing about God, myself, or others? |
| Work of the flesh | What fleshly pattern becomes visible? |
| Consequence | How does this affect me and other people? |
| Identity in Christ | What has God declared about me in Christ? |
| Fruit of the Spirit | What quality should become visible instead? |
| New response | What would walking by the Spirit look like? |
| Accountability | Who can help me practice this new response? |
| Restitution | Is there anyone with whom I must make things right? |
The purpose of this exercise is not self-condemnation. It is to recognize the difference between identity and contradictory conduct and then bring that conduct into alignment with the Spirit.
Biblical Vocabulary
Image — Tselem
A representation that makes the authority or presence of another visible. Humanity was created to represent God within creation.
Likeness — Demuth
Resemblance or correspondence. Humanity was intended to reflect God’s character and government.
Flesh — Sarx
In passages such as Galatians 5, human life operating through desires, patterns, and resources independent of God’s Spirit. It should not be reduced simply to the physical body.
Spirit — Pneuma
The Holy Spirit, God’s living presence within His people, who communicates divine life and forms the character of Christ in believers.
New Creation — Kainē ktisis
The new reality brought forth through Christ. It describes more than personal improvement; it signals participation in God’s renewed humanity and order.
Repentance — Metanoia
A change of mind, understanding, allegiance, and direction in response to God’s truth.
Reconciliation — Katallagē
The removal of hostility and restoration of relationship. In Christ, God reconciles humanity to Himself and gives the reconciled a ministry of reconciliation.
Sanctification — Hagiasmos
Being set apart for God and brought into practical alignment with His holy character and purpose.
Knowledge Assessment
Multiple Choice
What is the foundation of human identity?
A. Personal achievement
B. Social acceptance
C. God’s creative intention
D. Religious performance
Answer: C
What was at the center of humanity’s rebellion?
A. The desire to work
B. The attempt to define life and good independently from God
C. The inability to understand instructions
D. Physical weakness
Answer: B
Why is Jesus called the last Adam?
A. He was the final person physically descended from Adam.
B. He repeated Adam’s experience without changing humanity’s condition.
C. He concluded the old humanity’s history and established a new humanity.
D. He returned humanity to a life without responsibility.
Answer: C
What are the works of the flesh?
A. Proof that the believer has no relationship with God
B. Behaviors produced by human desires and patterns operating independently from the Spirit
C. Every physical activity
D. Mistakes that God refuses to forgive
Answer: B
What is the fruit of the Spirit?
A. A personality type possessed by naturally calm people
B. Moral qualities produced entirely by discipline
C. The character of Christ formed through the Holy Spirit
D. A reward for religious activity
Answer: C
What is the proper relationship between identity and conduct?
A. Conduct earns identity.
B. Identity makes conduct irrelevant.
C. Conduct should increasingly express the identity received in Christ.
D. Identity changes every time conduct changes.
Answer: C
True or False
The image of God was completely erased by the fall.
False. The image remained, but humanity’s capacity to represent God faithfully became corrupted.
Work began as a punishment after sin.
False. Meaningful work and stewardship existed before the fall. Frustration and futility entered human work through sin.
A new creation never experiences conflict with the flesh.
False. The New Testament acknowledges the conflict while calling believers to walk by the Spirit.
Recognizing a new identity in Christ means claiming sinless perfection.
False. New identity and complete maturity are not the same.
Grace removes the need for correction and repentance.
False. Grace provides the secure foundation and transforming power through which correction and repentance can produce alignment.
Believers obey in order to become accepted by God.
False. Believers obey from the reconciliation and acceptance received in Christ.
Written Response
Answer each question in one or two paragraphs.
- Explain the relationship between the image of God and humanity’s vocation.
- Describe what was corrupted through Adam’s rebellion.
- Explain why moral improvement could not create a new humanity.
- What does Jesus accomplish as the last Adam?
- Explain the difference between the works of the flesh and the believer’s identity.
- How does the fruit of the Spirit develop?
- Why is it important to distinguish identity from maturity?
- How does restored identity lead to restored mission?
Final Reflection
Return to the statement you completed at the beginning:
“When I think about who I am before God, the first words that come to mind are…”
Now write a new response based on what you have learned. Your response should address:
- How God originally created humanity
- What was corrupted in Adam
- What Christ accomplished as the last Adam
- What it means to be in Christ
- How you understand the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit
- Who you are now
- What kind of life should flow from that identity
Compare both answers. Identify at least one belief that has changed and one area that still requires deeper renewal.
Declaration of Alignment
Read this declaration carefully. Do not treat it as a formula or motivational affirmation. Its value is found in agreeing consciously with the truth revealed in Scripture.
I was created in the image of God to live in communion with Him, reflect His character, cultivate what He entrusts to me, and represent His government within creation. Humanity’s rebellion corrupted this vocation and brought sin, alienation, and death into human experience. I could not restore myself through effort, morality, or religion.
Jesus Christ came as the last Adam. Through His obedience, death, and resurrection, He brought the old humanity’s dominion to an end and established a new humanity in Himself. Through grace, I have been united with Christ, reconciled to God, transferred into His Kingdom, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
I may still experience conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, but the works of the flesh do not define who I am. I will not excuse conduct that contradicts Christ, nor will I allow failure to speak more authoritatively than His finished work. I receive correction without condemnation and submit my mind, desires, and conduct to the Holy Spirit.
I am a new creation in Christ. I belong to God, participate in His life, and have been restored to purpose. I will learn to live consistently with this identity and represent Christ faithfully in every sphere entrusted to me.
Practice Before the Next Class
For the next seven days, begin each morning by reading one of the following passages:
- Day 1: Genesis 1:26–28
- Day 2: Romans 5:15–21
- Day 3: Romans 6:4–14
- Day 4: Romans 8:1–14
- Day 5: 2 Corinthians 5:14–21
- Day 6: Galatians 5:16–25
- Day 7: Colossians 3:1–15
After reading, answer three questions:
- What does this passage reveal about God’s work?
- What does it reveal about my identity in Christ?
- What response would be consistent with that identity today?
At the end of the seven days, write one paragraph explaining what changed in the way you understood yourself, your struggles, and your purpose.
Completion Requirement
Before proceeding to the next class, you should be able to express the lesson in your own words:
“Humanity was created in God’s image for communion, representation, and responsible dominion. That vocation was corrupted through Adam’s rebellion, bringing humanity under sin and death. Jesus came as the last Adam and established a new humanity through His obedience, death, and resurrection. Because I am in Christ, the Holy Spirit now lives in me. I am learning to reject the works of the flesh and express the fruit of the Spirit, not to earn a new identity, but because God has already made me new in Christ.”