You don’t see things as they are. You see things as you are. That one truth really bears thinking through, because it means the key to changing how you see the world around you, how you see others, how you see yourself and how you see every circumstance that flies into your inbox is truly who you are. God is not interested in helping you construct your own identity. He is interested in giving you one.
You See Things as You Are
So much of what I have been teaching on kingdom perspective comes back to the concept of learning to see differently, and of how God sees things. God doesn’t see things as we see them. We think we see accurately, but we don’t. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.”
The challenge is this: we don’t often see as we are. We don’t see ourselves as we truly are. Many of us carry a distorted, corrupted, sick, twisted and suffering image of who we are. If my own concept of myself is damaged and patched up, then everything I see around me will be like that too. I am convinced that you see through your identity, and that part of the pathway, the journey of learning to see correctly, is learning to put on a new identity.
Only Two Identities
Paul writes to the Colossians, under a heading that the publisher of my little travel Bible has titled “Put on the new self” (those headings are not inspired, and they are often terrible, but I like that one). As it is written in Colossians 3:1–3, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
He goes on to tell us to put to death what is earthly in us (sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry) and to put away anger, wrath, malice, slander and filthy language. Then he gives the reason: “since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:9–11).
At one level, this is very binary and very clear. We could say we are all different, that we have all had different experiences, and amen to that. The bottom line, though, is that for a believer there are only two identities. There is an old identity and there is a new identity, and we have all received that new identity in Christ. We can unpack that and explore what it means, but the foundation does not move. As written in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
The Problem With Self-Help
God is interested in giving us our identity. He is not interested in self-help or self-development. The problem with self-help is the word self. We can’t do it. Self-help is like a modern version of the law: it is you trying to improve yourself. God looks at all of our efforts to improve ourselves and says, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not interested in those.”
So I want to lay a simple foundation. God really has only one plan for your old self, and that is death. I was about to say that God wants to kill you. The better response is to realize it is not that He wants to; it is that He already has. God has dealt with your self problem. He dealt with it on the cross.
Dying to Self Is a Historical Event
Dying to self isn’t a day-by-day journey and discipline. It is not something we learn to do slowly over time. Dying to self is an historical event. It happened two thousand years ago. In a mysterious way we don’t fully understand (and yet it is as clear as the nose on your face in the Bible) God took your old self, my old self and, in a sense, the old selves of the whole world, put them on Jesus and slew them on the cross of Calvary. Then, in Christ, He raised you in newness of life. As written in Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
We are talking about seeing, about perspective. From God’s vantage point, He looks at you and says, “Your old you is dead. Your old identity is dead, and you have a brand new identity.”
Now pause. How do we look at ourselves? I have been a Christian for over forty years, and I have been around this stuff long enough, in the UK, in Europe and in America, to know whereof I speak. Here is the point I am making: our Christianity is usually a reflection not of what the Bible clearly says, but of what we actually see in our lives.
Most of us have a working theology that goes something like this: “God touched my life and saved me, and I’m sort of struggling through this life. I’m learning to be a Christian, like somebody learning to play golf. I’m a bit of a failure, but God loves me anyway. As long as I don’t give up on the journey and try to be good, He won’t throw me out. When I die, He’ll come and say, ‘Shazam!’ and I will be transformed into the glorious, sinless person I will be throughout all eternity.”
That might sound rude or facetious, but can I tell you, that is what 99% of Christians really, truly believe. Nobody may state it quite that clearly, yet that is usually exactly where people are coming from. I want to tell you there is no truth in it. Think about it: if that were so, the moment of salvation would be the moment of death. Death would become the thing that saves you, and all we could do is grapple our way through the day and make it through this vale of tears.
Start From New Creation
That is not how God sees you. God sees you now as a new creation. He sees the old man in you as dead. As Paul declares in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Let me reverse engineer what Paul is saying in Colossians 3. He is saying, “Put on that new man. Practise that new man by doing all the things the new man does. Practise putting off the actions, the deeds and the habits of the old man.” Yet he begins by telling us how to do that: set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Fix your attention on who you are, on who God says you are.
He is not coming to you and saying, “If you will do these good things, you will become a new creation.” What he is saying is, “Start off in new creation. Acknowledge your new creation. Fix your mindset there.” When you do, the actions will flow out of you. Let me challenge you to stop trying to build a better old self and to begin, by faith, from the place God has already put you. Your old self is dead. You are a new creation in Christ.
Scriptures for Study
Colossians 3:1–4, Colossians 3:5–8, Colossians 3:9–11, Colossians 2:12–13, 1 Corinthians 13:12, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 6:3–4, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:11, Romans 8:1–2, Romans 12:2, Galatians 2:20, Galatians 5:24, Galatians 6:14–15, Ephesians 2:4–6, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 4:22–24, Philippians 3:9, John 3:3–6, John 15:5, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 3:1–2, Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:14
10 Questions for Reflection
- What do you see when you look at yourself, and where did that picture come from?
- How might a damaged view of yourself be shaping how you see other people and circumstances?
- Do you believe there are really only two identities, the old and the new? Why might that be hard to accept?
- In what ways have you tried to improve your old self through self-help or effort?
- What changes when you see dying to self as something that already happened at the cross?
- How closely does the “working theology” described here match what you have believed?
- Why is it dangerous to treat death, rather than Christ, as the moment of transformation?
- What does it look like for you to set your mind on things above?
- Which habits of the old man is God asking you to put off, starting from your new identity?
- How would your coming week look if you began each day by acknowledging that you are a new creation?
