You Are Not Who You Once Were
You are not who you once were. If you’ve put your faith in Jesus Christ and received His free gift of salvation, you are not who you once were.
Many of us as believers in Christ are waiting to feel differently or to begin behaving differently to believe that we are not who we once were. We want to change. We want to become like Jesus, and we are hoping that we’ll get there one day.
Maybe you are even trying to work a series of steps to get there. Maybe you are trying to follow a list of religious activities to help you. You don’t believe you are there yet, but you hope to get there one day.
When you act more like Jesus and feel more like Jesus then you’ll know that you are finally not who you used to be.
If this is what you believe, Satan has deceived you. He’s blinded you from knowing the truth or from believing the truth you have heard.
The truth is that you may not feel different or have started acting differently, but Scripture declares that if you’ve put your faith in Jesus for salvation, you are very different from the person you used to be.
Because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, you can declare out loud, “I am not who I once was!”
REGENERATION (NEW HEART)
When you believed in Jesus for salvation, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in you and united to your spirit, making you spiritually alive. You were spiritually dead because of sin, but in this moment, you were changed and made spiritually alive. This is regeneration.
Regeneration is sometimes referred to as being born again. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that to enter the Kingdom of God a person must be born again. This spiritual rebirth gives you a new heart.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you… (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
Because of sin, you were born with a sin nature, but through the Spirit, you received a new nature at your conversion. You were given a renewed will, new affections, and new desires.
You are not who you once were.
UNION WITH CHRIST
Not only were you regenerated in an instant, but Jesus also came to dwell in you.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)
As Jesus came to indwell you, you entered into a spiritual union with Him. You are in Christ and He is in you. You are made one.
But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17)
As one spirit with Jesus, you share in His spiritual DNA. Jesus shares His communicable attributes with you. In Christ you are holy, righteous, and loved. You have His resurrection power (Eph. 1:19), and you have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
At the core of your being, you are one with Christ and made into someone new.
You are not who you once were.
NEW CREATION
As someone who has been regenerated and placed in a union with Jesus Christ, you’ve been made into a new creation.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
You are not like an old car that’s been refurbished on the outside. You have an entirely new engine in you. You are not the same old you with a repaint job or a touch up. You are a new person. You are an entirely new creation in Christ.
You are not who you once were.
CITIZEN OF HEAVEN
There’s more good news about you. As a new creation in Christ, you’ve been spiritually seated in heaven.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6)
Heaven is not a place you will go one day. If you are in Christ, you are a citizen of heaven right now! You dwell in the eternal realm and have eternal life already.
That is why the apostle Paul encourages us to focus on the unseen, eternal realm.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
The unseen, eternal realm is changeless and timeless — the realm of ultimate reality where completeness and wholeness reside. That’s where you live. That’s where the real you resides in your union with Christ. You are part of a realm where things don’t change, you are complete, and you are whole.
You are not who you once were.
COMPLETE AND PERFECT
Because of all the changes that have taken place in you at the moment of salvation, the apostle Paul says that you are complete.
So you also are complete through your union with Christ. (Colossians 2:10)
The author of Hebrews declares that you have been made perfect.
For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14)
You are not going to be complete and perfect one day when you start to feel different or when you start to behave differently. You’ve been made complete. You’ve been made perfect. Therefore, you can now act differently because you’ve been made differently.
As you begin to agree with who God says you are and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, you’ll begin to look a lot more like Jesus on the outside. You already are like Jesus on the inside and will conform to His image on the outside.
You’ll be growing up into who you already are!
You are not who you once were.
“We’ve been given a new nature with the genetic code of God himself… more than likely, you’ll not always feel that you’re living up to your genetic connection, but the facts will never be altered. What the Bible says is true of you is true of you whether you feel it or not.”
Many people would be surprised to learn that God’s view of them is much greater than their own.
Ralph Harris, founder and President of LifeCourse Ministries, leads readers to experience a deeply satisfying, joyful relationship with Christ as they embrace what God thinks of them―that they are holy, righteous, blameless, and lovable.
With easily communicated biblical knowledge and examples of God’s grace, Harris turns readers toward the love affair with God they were made for.
Readers will encounter wisdom, direction, and encouragement as they rest in God’s truth and mercy, develop a sincere partnership with Christ, and live as confident children of God.
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