One of the most important contrasts we find in the New Testament is between the old and the new. Not the old and new testament but the old and new man.
The old man is represented by Adam and stands for fallen humanity in rebellion against God.
The new man is represented by Christ, the Last Adam, and He is the head of redeemed humanity which is at peace with God.
To be a Christian is to be transferred from in Adam to in Christ. It is to be adopted from the broken-down house of Adam and brought into the royal courts of King Jesus.
Along with this new identity there is to follow a new way of living. "You are in Christ, so be who you are" is one way that you could sum up all the commands of the NT.
Yet as the saying goes "old habits die hard." So with that what we experience on a daily basis is an identity relapse, that is how you could describe the act of sin.
We forget who we are, and so relapse into acting like who we used to be. Or you might even say that we forget whose we are and relapse into living as if our allegiance remained bound to the Kingdom of Darkness.
In light of our frequent identity relapses it is vitally important that we remind ourselves of the identity that we have in Christ:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come…For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21)
This identity is true of you not because of anything you did or accomplished but only because of what Christ has done for you. On the cross he paid the penalty in full for your old identity so that He could give you a new one.
