Bible Truth Foundations
Part 1 of 3: New Life in Christ
Please begin by answering this question honestly in your own words.
When you approach God in prayer, do you come as someone who is accepted and welcome, or as someone who is trying to earn their way into a hearing? Where does that sense come from?
Ephesians 1:4–6 (NKJV)
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Three statements: chosen before the world began, holy and without blame, accepted in the Beloved. Read each one separately and let it settle before moving on.
The central idea of this lesson
Your acceptance before God is not conditional on this week's performance. You are holy, without blame and accepted in Christ. Learning to stand in that identity — rather than in your own track record — is the great shift of the Christian life.
Lesson 03 covered righteousness by grace in terms of justification: how God declares a person righteous through faith. This lesson approaches the same truth from the angle of identity: not just that you were declared righteous at the point of salvation, but that your new spirit was created righteous. There is a difference between a legal declaration and an actual state, and the New Testament claims both.
Ephesians 4:24 (NKJV)
And that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
The new man was created in righteousness and holiness. It did not begin neutral and begin accumulating righteousness through good behaviour. It was constituted righteous from the moment of the new birth. The instruction to "put it on" is not an instruction to create something; it is an instruction to wear what already exists, to live from what is already true in your spirit.
Note
The source material behind this lesson makes a distinction that is worth holding clearly: there is a righteousness you produce through your own behaviour, which matters in your relationships with other people and in the daily conduct of your life. There is also the righteousness of God given to you in Christ, which is the basis of your standing before God. The first kind fluctuates with your performance; the second does not. God does not accept you on the basis of the first kind. He accepts you entirely on the basis of the second kind, which is rooted in what Christ has done, not what you have done. Both kinds are real; only one is the ground of your relationship with God.
The opening chapter of Ephesians contains what is arguably the densest concentration of identity statements in the New Testament. Three of them from verses 4 to 6 form the anchor of this lesson:
Ephesians 1:3–6 (NKJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Work through each statement carefully. He chose us before the foundation of the world: your standing in Christ is not a recent adjustment made in response to your decision; it was purposed before time began. We should be holy and without blame before Him: this is not a future target but the present description of the believer's standing. We were made accepted in the Beloved: not accepted on a provisional basis, not conditionally accepted pending future performance, but made accepted, past tense, in Christ.
Note
"Holy and without blame" describes your standing before God, not necessarily your behaviour in the last week. This is the same distinction L09 drew between the spirit (already complete) and the soul (still being renewed). When Paul calls believers "saints" — literally holy ones — throughout his letters, he is using a present-tense identity word, not a description of moral perfection. Your behaviour should increasingly reflect your identity; but your identity does not wait for your behaviour to catch up before it is real.
The depth of the union that constitutes the new identity goes further still:
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV)
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Not near the Lord. Not approved by the Lord. One spirit with Him. The language Paul uses is the language of the most complete union available in Scripture. The believer's spirit is not merely changed and then left to operate separately from God; it is joined to God at the deepest level. This is why the source material insists that the way to fellowship with God is through your spirit, not through your behaviour or your emotional state. Your spirit is already in union with Him. The Christian life is, in one sense, the process of every other part of you catching up with what is already true in that union.
Ephesians 3:16–19 (NKJV)
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Paul is praying for people who are already believers. The prayer is that they would comprehend what is already true and be filled with what is already available. The fullness of God is not something you work up to over decades of spiritual effort; it is the inheritance of the new birth, which you grow into as your mind is renewed to understand what your spirit already possesses.
Going Deeper
The phrase "rooted and grounded in love" in Ephesians 3:17 uses two different metaphors for the same foundation: roots going down into soil (organic, living, growing) and foundations laid for a building (structural, load-bearing). Paul is saying that the comprehension of who you are in Christ requires being established in love at both levels: the experiential, relational level and the structural, doctrinal level. Many believers have one without the other. Doctrine without the experience of love produces correct belief held at arm's length. Experience of love without doctrinal foundation produces emotion that does not know what it is built on. Both together produce the comprehension Paul is praying for.
Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
This verse follows directly after Ephesians 2:8-9, which was covered in Lesson 02. The sequence is deliberate. Saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Then: created for good works. The works are the outcome, not the input. You are His workmanship; He made you. What He made you for includes a life of good works. But the works flow from the identity He established, not toward the identity you are trying to earn. The order is unchangeable: identity first, then works; not works first, then identity.
This is the practical summary of both Identity in Christ lessons. The source material states it directly: the great transformation of the Christian life is that a person changes their identity. You have to relate to God based not on what you do in the physical realm, not on what you think in your mind, but on who you are in your spirit based on what He has done for you.
John 4:23–24 (NKJV)
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Worshipping in spirit means coming to God from the place where you are already joined to Him, already righteous, already accepted. Not from the place where you are reviewing your week and calculating whether you have earned the right to approach. The Father is described as seeking this kind of worshipper. He is not watching from a distance waiting to be impressed; He is actively drawing those who will come to Him from the right foundation.
Caution
The teaching that your spirit is already holy, righteous and complete can feel threatening to people who have a long history of relating to God through guilt and performance. Two responses are common. The first is relief followed by confusion: if I am already accepted, what motivates me to change? The answer is that love is a far more powerful motivator than fear or guilt, and the more clearly you see how completely you are accepted, the more naturally you want to live from that acceptance rather than betray it. The second response is resistance: this sounds too easy and too good to be true. That response deserves to be named. The Gospel is meant to be too good to be true by the standards of human merit systems. That is the nature of grace. The caution is not to soften the claim; it is to make sure it is understood and believed at the level of the spirit, not just held as an interesting idea.
Practical Tip
This week, before you begin your prayer time, read Ephesians 1:3-6 aloud slowly. Then sit in silence for a moment and try to come to God from the identity those verses describe: chosen, holy, without blame, accepted in the Beloved. Notice whether you feel resistance or relief. Whatever you feel, bring that honestly to God as part of the prayer itself. The gap between what those verses say and what you feel in the moment is the exact space that renewing the mind (Ephesians 4:23) is designed to close.
Work through these on your own before your group meets. Type your answers directly into the table below. Your answers are saved automatically in your browser.
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| Question | My Answer | Group Discussion Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Read Ephesians 4:24. The new man was "created" in righteousness and holiness. What is the difference between being created righteous and becoming righteous gradually over time? | ||
| Read Ephesians 1:4-6. Identify the three specific identity statements Paul makes. For each one, write what it means to you personally that this is already true. | ||
| Read 1 Corinthians 6:17. Paul says the believer is "one spirit" with the Lord. How does that description of the union change the way you think about your access to God? | ||
| Read Ephesians 2:10. Good works appear after the statement that salvation is not of works (verses 8-9). What does the position of this verse tell you about the relationship between identity and good works? | ||
| Read John 4:23-24. Jesus says the Father seeks those who worship in spirit and truth. What would it look like to come to God from your identity in Christ rather than from your recent behaviour? What would be different? |
These questions are designed for open conversation at any level of experience. There are no trick questions and no single correct answer.
The shift from relating to God through performance to relating to God through identity is not automatic. It requires deliberate, repeated practice. These applications target three places where that shift becomes concrete.
| Context | How I Apply This |
|---|---|
| In your prayer life | This week, begin each prayer time by reading Ephesians 1:3-6 and consciously coming to God from the identity it describes, not from your most recent behaviour. You are holy, without blame and accepted in the Beloved before you say a single word. This is not arrogance; it is faith in what God has done. The more consistently you practise coming from this foundation, the more naturally your prayers will shift from anxious transactions to genuine conversation. |
| When you feel distant from God | The feeling of distance from God after failure is one of the most common experiences in the Christian life. The lesson's answer to it is clear: you are one spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17). The distance you feel is in your soul, in the unrenewed mind reading the situation through the lens of performance. Your spirit has not moved. Return to the truth rather than the feeling: say it aloud if necessary. "I am one spirit with the Lord. I am accepted in the Beloved. I am coming to Him from my spirit, not from my track record." |
| In how you serve and work | Ephesians 2:10 says you were created for good works, which God prepared beforehand for you to walk in. That means the works are already prepared; they are not things you invent through effort to prove yourself. This week, before you engage in any act of service or Christian responsibility, pause and reconnect with the foundation: you are doing this as God's workmanship, from an accepted position, not toward one. The activity is the same; the inner posture is entirely different. |
Tap each card to reveal the answer.
How were believers made accepted before God?
Ephesians 1:6
"To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."
Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV). Accepted in Christ. Past tense. Not earned; given.
What does "holy and without blame before Him" mean for a believer today?
Ephesians 1:4
It is the present description of the believer's standing before God in Christ, not a future moral target. It describes your spirit's status, not the current state of your behaviour. Your behaviour should catch up; but your standing is already settled.
What does 1 Corinthians 6:17 say about the believer's relationship with the Lord?
1 Corinthians 6:17
"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV). Not near Him or approved by Him. One spirit with Him.
What does Ephesians 2:10 say about believers and good works?
Ephesians 2:10
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV). Works are the outcome of identity, not the basis of it.
What are the two kinds of righteousness, and which one is the basis of your standing before God?
1. Self-produced righteousness: your own behaviour and moral record. Important in human relationships. 2. God's righteousness given in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). This alone is the basis of your standing before God. The first fluctuates; the second does not.
What does Jesus say about the kind of worshippers the Father seeks?
John 4:23–24
"The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."
John 4:23 (NKJV). Worship from the spirit, from identity in Christ; not from a performance review.