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You are not who your past says you are. The moment you came to Christ, a legal, spiritual, and cosmic transaction took place β and the person God sees now is the person Christ made you. That is your real identity.
Get These Verses Daily β FreeβTherefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.β
You are not a renovated version of your former self. The phrase 'new creature' is kainΔ ktisis in Greek β a new kind of creation. Not improved, but categorically new.
βI am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.β
Paul uses a grammatical paradox on purpose: 'I live; yet not I.' Your personhood is preserved, but it is now Christ-inhabited. This is what it means to be 'in Christ' β not just forgiven, but indwelt.
βBut as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.β
The word 'power' here is exousia β legal authority, not just ability. Becoming a child of God is not an aspiration. It is a standing granted the moment you receive Christ.
βAnd if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.β
Joint-heir means equal inheritance. Everything Christ will receive, you receive alongside him. This is not poetic language β in Roman law, joint-heirs had the same legal claim. God is not speaking loosely here.
βFor we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.β
The Greek word for workmanship is poiΔma β poem, masterwork. God did not mass-produce you. He crafted you. And the works ahead of you were prepared before you arrived.
The Charismatic tradition has always insisted that the new birth is not a metaphor β it is an ontological event. You did not get better. You did not reform. You became something that did not exist before. Second Corinthians 5:17 says "old things are passed away" in the aorist tense β a completed, unrepeatable action. The old self did not evolve; it was terminated.
What rises in its place is staggering: John 1:12 gives believers "power to become the sons of God." The Greek word is exousia β authority, legal right. Not sonship as a feeling or aspiration, but as a standing before heaven that cannot be reversed. Romans 8:17 adds that this makes you a joint-heir with Christ β which means everything Christ inherits, you inherit alongside him.
This is why identity crises are fundamentally theological crises. When you don't know who you are, the answer is never found by looking inward β it is found by looking at what the cross accomplished. Galatians 2:20 makes it explicit: the old "you" was crucified with Christ. The one now living is a Christ-indwelt being. Your identity was never about performance. It was always about union.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Ephesians 2:10 β "we are his workmanship" β uses the Greek word poiΔma, from which we get "poem." You are not a product off an assembly line. You are a crafted piece. The same word appears in Romans 1:20 for the created world β the universe is God's poiΔma, and so are you. That is the company you are in.
What most readers miss: the verse continues, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained." The Greek for "before ordained" (proetoimazΕ) means prepared in advance β like a table set before the guest arrives. The works are not assignments God invented after you showed up. They were prepared before you were born, waiting for you specifically. The question is never whether there is a purpose. It is whether you will find the table that already has your name on it.
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