Authority flows from identity. To understand how we are called to live in Christ, we must first discover who we became when we were born again. A performance-based approach concentrates on what we must do for God. The New Testament directs us first to what God has already done in Christ, and then to how we are expected to live IN HIM. That’s right, expected—not to earn His acceptance or favor, but to express the life He has given us.
God has expectations of you, and they are great and wonderful expectations.
Religion produces servants constantly trying to qualify themselves. The life of Christ produces sons of God with tremendous power and authority. Discovering our amazing inheritance in Christ is one of the privileges we enjoy on our journey of salvation. And yes, salvation is a journey, not an event.
Today we are going to examine a revolutionary, yet foundational New Testament truth: our authority in Christ flows from our identity in Him. First, we will ask what happened at the new birth. Then we will look back to creation to understand humanity’s original calling. From there, we will distinguish receiving God’s life by grace from trying to earn it through religious effort. Finally, we will examine the Spirit’s life within us, see that life expressed through Peter’s ministry, and identify one response we can make today. This lesson establishes the foundation—who we are and what we have received. In the next lesson, we will build on that foundation with practical steps for living it out.
Let’s distinguish three things. Identity answers, “Who am I in Christ?” Authority answers, “Under whose name and direction do I act?” Power answers, “Whose strength makes that action possible?” In this teaching, authority means acting as Christ’s representative, not independently of Him. Our identity is received in Christ, our authority remains under Christ, and the power belongs to God.
What happened at the new birth?
Through the new birth, we are restored to sonship with God. We receive His life and learn to reflect His character as His children. By sonship, I do not mean that we become the Father or possess authority independently of Him. I mean that our relationship with Him changes our identity and the way we live. This challenges deeply rooted religious assumptions, so let’s examine it carefully through Scripture rather than dismiss it before we understand it. Wrong thinking about our identity can keep us from recognizing and receiving our inheritance in Christ.
Before rejecting these statements, ask yourself this: What if the spiritual weakness of the Church and the obvious lack of kingdom demonstration and power is coming from religious traditions that have shaped our thinking and believing for centuries?
Satan has convinced the Church that Christianity is only about surviving until Heaven. We will never discover the supernatural capabilities we received at the new birth with this mindset. The Devil knows something most believers have forgotten. Ability and authority always flow from identity. Without understanding who we are, we will never walk in what He paid for us to be, which is redeemed sons, completely restored to Adam’s original status, but with one huge difference. We are now born of incorruptible seed.
Every seed reproduces after its own kind.
We have no problem understanding that a horse can only produce a horse. A cat can only produce a cat. A corn seed produces a corn plant. We understand that every seed produces after its own kind. We know the potential lies within the seed to produce another of the same kind. Then why do we imagine that when God creates something through His own incorruptible seed, it produces something less than a being like Himself?
1 Peter 1:22-23 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever
It’s hard for us to wrap our heads around this concept; in fact, it is impossible without faith. If we aren’t feeding on His Word (incorruptible seed) constantly, and feeding our faith, we won’t even believe that it is possible.
Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
What happened in the beginning?
To understand what is restored through the new birth, we must look back to what creation originally produced. Before the fall, before guilt and shame, before fear, there stood one man upon the earth, Adam. And Adam was unlike anything ever created. The fish were created after their kind, the birds after their kind, the cattle after their kind. Then suddenly something changes. God does not simply speak another creature into existence. Instead, we see thoughtful, divine, intentional deliberation.
Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
“Let us make man in Our image according to Our likeness.” God never said that about the angels or any other creatures we see in the Bible, only man. Man was created to be LIKE God. And this God-like creature was commanded to take dominion and rule over the Earth. He was expected to multiply and take dominion over every living thing that moved upon the Earth. This included Satan.
The tragedy of the Fall was not limited to a single act of disobedience. Sin damaged man’s relationship with God and Adam relinquished his authority to the enemy, making God’s command to take dominion over the Earth impossible. Satan deceives us into focusing only on guilt, condemnation, and shame, so that the fact that in Christ authority has been restored and taking dominion is now possible and expected.
The consequences of sin now have a redemptive solution in Christ.
Man was never intended to be just another creature living on the Earth. He was created to be the god of this world. To be God’s representative within creation. A supernatural being capable of expressing God’s will, reflecting God’s character, and manifesting God’s authority and power. Ruling and reigning as a god on Earth.
In Christ we are born again into the royal family of God and are expected to reign in this life as kings and priests unto our God (Rev 1:6), taking back the dominion that Satan stole.
Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Adam lost the royal position and authority associated with his original calling. I understand Satan’s deception as a usurping of that authority. That is an interpretation of how the Fall relates to Satan’s influence, not something the following verse explains in detail. Second Corinthians calls Satan the “god of this age” and identifies one expression of that influence: blinding the minds of those who do not believe.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
The new birth is not merely forgiveness of sin and the cancellation of guilt. It is the impartation of God’s life and the expression of His nature within our recreated spirit. This is why understanding our God-given identity matters: if we think only in terms of human limitation, we may fail to act as His children. When I speak of restored, god-like authority, I mean representing God under Christ’s lordship—not becoming independent gods. We resist the enemy through faith, truth, prayer, and obedience. Taking dominion is spiritual resistance.
Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
This passage requires careful interpretation; We have permission from Heaven to be violent in reclaiming the kingdom. However, we must not turn this forceful language into permission to harm or coerce people, but to dispel darkness, curse, and all the works of the enemy. The point is that faith is not passive. We resist deception, persevere in obedience, and minister with courage and love. With that distinction clear, look at the practical ministry Jesus described in the next passage. In fact, look at what Jesus said in such a matter-of-fact way that we read right over it without giving it due attention.
Matthew 10:7-8 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Where is the disconnect between the ministry Jesus described and our experience? Consider the questions personally: When was the last time you cast out a devil or healed the sick? Have you ever raised the dead? If not, why not? Let these questions lead us into examining our understanding of identity, authority, and power—not away from the foundation we are establishing.
Observing the Church’s current condition gives us important questions to examine. Where have we lost understanding, courage, or the willingness to act on what we believe? Recovering those things calls for effort, sacrifice, discipline, and diligence—but not effort to earn God’s acceptance or manufacture His power. It is the effort of learning, obeying, and persevering from a life already received by grace. We can begin that response together. Why not you and I? Let us embrace the life Jesus paid for us to live.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
The coming of Jesus was not God’s emergency response. Listen to His words: “I have come that they may have life.” In this teaching, I am emphasizing more than biological existence: the abundant life we receive in Christ. Salvation is not merely the cancellation of guilt; it is participation in the life He gives. Paul’s description of the believer as a new creation makes the same central point. We are not trying to improve our old life. We are learning to live from the new life received in Christ.
Grace vs. Religious effort
Christianity reaches its highest and most noble expression as a lifestyle of divine cooperation with God’s Word and His Spirit. We do not manufacture His life through our own strength; we depend on the life He has placed within us. A grapevine branch bears grapes because it remains connected to the vine. Likewise, the believer’s fruit comes from abiding in Christ. Abiding is not inactivity. It means receiving His Word, responding to His Spirit, and obeying from our new identity—not striving to earn an identity He has already given.
Religion says, “Try harder.” Grace says, “Receive My life.” Religion focuses on behavior and works but God says focus on the identity of the new creation.
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.
Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
When identity changes, behavior follows. We do not become supernatural by striving. We are supernatural. Christ’s own Spirit abides within us. And once that revelation settles into our heart, everything changes. Perspectives change, prayer changes, faith increases, worship becomes more intimate, confidence grows. Even the way we read Scripture changes because we stop reading the Bible as an outsider looking in. We begin reading it as a child discovering his inheritance, as a son looking into a mirror.
We were never meant to labor for what grace has already provided. We simply receive it by faith when we move from believing that God exists to believing what He has said about us is true. And once that settles into our hearts, transformation begins.
The Reality of the New Creation
Every other religion attempts to improve man. Through the blood of Jesus, we are recreated in Him—not an improved sinner, but a new creation in Christ. That is a difference we cannot afford to miss. Having established that our identity is received rather than earned, we now need to examine what this new life means: walking in newness of life and recognizing Christ’s presence within us.
Jesus told Nicodemus, one of the most educated religious leaders in Israel, something that shattered his theology. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” Jesus spoke about new birth because birth represents NEW life, not improved life. New thinking, new focus, new mission, new source of life, new values, and a new nature.
Romans 6:4-6 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 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.
The day we believed in Christ, something miraculous happened inside our spirit; a brand-new creature came into existence. Something the world and all of Heaven had never seen before. We became something greater, something more than merely a fallen human.
When Adam was created, he was sinless and possessed complete innocence. When we were born again, we received complete redemption and were restored to the same condition and more. Adam walked with God. We walk in God. Adam knew God’s presence around him. We carry God’s presence within us, and we are born of incorruptible seed. That is why Paul calls this mystery “Christ in you the hope of glory”.
Colossians 1:26-27 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Notice where Christ lives. Not beside us, not above us, in us. God has chosen our recreated Spirit as His dwelling place. That means that we are no longer ordinary humans trying to contact God from a distance. We have become God’s dwelling place on Earth. This is why John writes, “As He is, so are we in this world.”
1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
Not as He was, not as He will be—as He is. Present tense. But notice the setting of that statement: John is speaking about love being perfected among us and boldness in the day of judgment. Our likeness to Christ is not a claim that we possess every attribute of God. It calls us to recognize our life in Him and let His love shape the way we live in this world.
Consider Romans 8.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
The Spirit that conquered death dwells in you. That is the foundation of your confidence—not your title, your experience, or your ability to produce a result. Trust God’s power when you pray for the sick, including those facing terminal disease, when you confront spiritual oppression, and when circumstances seem beyond hope. The extraordinary works described throughout this teaching point us toward His power, not a technique we control. Every believer is invited to depend on Him. We can minister boldly while continuing to care faithfully for people whose circumstances have not yet changed.
Knowing that the Spirit dwells in us leads to a practical question: how does His life flow through us to others? As we consider the power that works within us, we must also consider the love that directs its expression.
You’re a New Creature, You Have New Abilities
Your abilities are determined by the life that is working within you. Have you ever paid attention to the life that God has deposited in you? Are you even aware that God has poured out His own nature within your heart? Have you ever considered that God’s power and abilities dwell in you?
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us
How much of God’s available power is currently working in you?
Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Love is not just the nature of God; love is God.
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God’s love is not detached from who He is. When we speak about His grace, authority, and power, we must not separate them from His loving character. Romans 5:5 says that His love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That means our exercise of authority must express love, not pride or control. The question is not only, “What power is available to me?” It is also, “How can I serve this person in the love of God?”
An electric wire has no power by itself. Its power comes from what flows through it. Likewise, the believer’s supernatural abilities do not originate from human effort. They originate from the life of God flowing from within.
Now let’s bring these truths together in one example. As we look at Peter’s ministry, keep three questions in mind: What did he know he had received? In whose name did he act? How did he give what he had to someone in need?
Peter stands before a beggar at the temple and says, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Such as I have. Peter understood he had something, not something external, something within. He did not ask God to heal the man. He ministered from the life of God already residing inside him. Religion says, “I hope and pray that God will do something.” The Bible teaches us to know what God has already placed within us and minister the life of God accordingly. Every believer possesses the same Holy Spirit Peter received. The difference is in the revelation. Peter believed what God said about him and he simply acted on who he knew he was. Identity! Authority flows from identity. That is not arrogance. That is faith in the finished work of Christ.
Peter did not wonder whether he was worthy enough, mature enough, or spiritual enough to minister to that man. He simply made a draw on what he already possessed. No hesitation, no qualification, just a settled revelation about who he was and what was already in him. Jesus modeled this, and we see this pattern repeated in the early church again and again. Ordinary people with no political influence, no military power, no financial empire. Yet within one generation, they shook the Roman empire and the entire known world.
Here is a place to begin today. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Ephesians 3:20 again. Then ask yourself, “Do I approach situations as someone trying to earn God’s acceptance, or as someone learning to live from what He has already given me?” Then choose one response that expresses His love: forgive someone, encourage someone who is discouraged, or—with their permission—pray with someone who is sick. This is not a formula for producing miracles. It is a first step in bringing our thinking and actions into agreement with our identity in Christ.
Today we have focused on the foundation: who we are in Christ and the life we have received. That leaves a question for our next lesson: What changed in the Church, and why don’t we see this type of demonstration more often?
Take this truth with you: authority flows from identity, and your identity is found in Christ. You do not earn His life; you receive it by faith and learn to express it through love and obedience. In the next lesson, we will examine what has hindered the Church’s demonstration of that life and learn practical steps for walking in the power seen in the early Church.
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JESUS IS COMING!
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