Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 5:17

I shared in yesterday’s post that the Lord has been working with me for several weeks on the topic of identity, specifically identity in Christ, and today I’d like to share the song that really started the conversation.

It’s called “New Name Written Down in Glory“, and my favorite performance of it is by Charity Gayle. You can listen to the full song using the link above, but for me, it’s this line repeated in the bridge that really grabbed my attention:

“I am who I am because the I AM tells me who I am.”

For me, it is a beautiful reminder that I am NOT:

• who my past says I am
• who my present circumstance says I am
• who the mistakes I’ve made say I am
• who the good works I’ve done say I am
• who my failures say I am
• who my successes say I am
• who the culture I live in says I am
• who the hats I wear say I am
• who the people who dislike me say I am
• who the people who love me say I am

I am not who any of these sources claim I am, not even the good sources because, in time, even the good things and loving people of this world will pass away.

No friend, my identity is not anchored in any earthly thing or earthly person.

I am who I am because the I AM tells me who I am,

AND

the I AM tells me that I am a new creation in Christ, that old things have passed away.

If you have been made a new creation through faith in Jesus Christ, then you are a new creation too, and the old things have passed away for you too.

And dear heart, this means so much more than freedom from the bad things we don’t like about our pasts.

Take a look at 2 Corinthians 5:16-18 below:

“From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.”

When God says “old things”, He means all old things – our entire worldly perspective passes away when we become a new creation.

Now, I say our worldly perspective passes away, but…you and I both know we struggle daily with a worldly perspective. But, have you noticed, since accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior, that the things of this world feel a little off, that there’s a stench on them you didn’t notice before, that they feel shallow, hollow, or dead?

Beloved, that’s because we are a new creation and the old, worldly perspectives we had before we accepted Christ are passed away, dead, but you and I are still carrying them around – no wonder they stink to us! God has made us new creations! Our old self, our old worldly ideas and ways of thinking and doing things have passed away; God doesn’t want us to carry those things around anymore, to act or think like we used to anymore.

What’s in the name “new creation”?

The ability to stop thinking and acting like the world. To take on a Christ-like perspective, the perspective of our Heavenly Father, and learn to think and act with an eternal perspective. To lay down worldly things that pass away and pursue the great I AM, to seek Him first, love Him most!

Brothers and Sisters, what “I am”, what worldly perspective, do you need to lay at the feet of the Savior today in an act of burying the old things that pass away? What do you need to do today to better embrace the “I am” that the “I AM” says you are?

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