Your Who is Not Your Do

As a Christian, you are God’s child; a new creation in Christ Jesus. This is who you are.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

When God looks at you, He sees who you are. Even when you sin, your spirit man is still righteous and in right standing with God because the blood of Jesus made you that way. God made you a new creation, His child. That is your new identity in Him. However, even though you are new and righteous, you may still do wrong things. Why? Because you have to understand that your who is different from your do.

As a believer, you have been made righteous, but now you have to learn to think right, talk right, and act right. When you sin in your mind or body, your spirit is still right, and has a right to be right with God. It’s a matter of learning to look at ourselves based on who we are, rather than what we do. And we are to live from who we are; righteous, so we can begin to do right.

So, the more we live from our righteous spirit with God’s help, and not out of our flesh, the more our actions will line up with our identity. Remember- you are in the process of becoming who you already are. In other words, you are being transformed in the natural into the person that God sees you are in the spirit. The more you renew your mind to God’s Word, the more you will think, speak, and do right. The righteousness that is in you will be worked out in your life and be made manifest in your actions. Our ultimate goal is for our do to follow and align with our who. That is what we look forward to.

Everything God created looks forward to the future. That will be the time when his children appear in their full and final glory. Romans 8:19 (New International Readers Version, NIRV)