The enemy has used the same attack on God's people, from the First Adam to the Last Adam, Jesus. In the Garden of Eden, satan said, "If you are" and he continues causing God's people to question their and who the Father says we are today. The enemy suggested that God was holding out on Adam and Eve, so that Eve wasn't fulfilled in her identity. In Genesis 3:5 (Amplified), satan told Eve , "For God knows that in the day you eat of [the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and Blessing and calamity."
Adam and Eve were already in God's Image and Likeness, according to Genesis 1:26-27,28 (Amplified) which says, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image (after Our Likeness), and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth." Adam and Eve already had God's Blessing upon them according to Verse 28, which says, "And God Blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful (multiply, and fill the earth), and subdue it, using all its vast resources in the service of God and man, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth."
Adam and Eve were both already made like God and were Blessed by Him, so what could they gain by believing satan's lie and eating from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil? They already knew the good and Blessing, so their only "gain" could be their knowing evil and calamity. Satan tried using the same tactics on Jesus in Luke 4:6 (Amplified), which tells us, "And [satan] said to [Jesus], To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence preeminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will." Jesus knew that Adam turned the authority and dominion God gave to him, over to satan. Jesus knew Who He was in the Father, knew that He already had everything satan had offered to Him and knew His True Identity.
If today's believers know who we are now in Christ Jesus, then we shouldn't be tempted to question our identity, just like Jesus didn't question His Identity. Adam delivered everything God had given him, over to the enemy. Jesus was without sin, so He wasn't subject to the Law of Sin and Death. Jesus had absolutely nothing to gain from satan's temptation. All things were still under the Blessing to Him, according to Hebrews 1:2 (Amplified) which says, "But in the Last of these days, He has spoken unto us in the Person of a Son Whom He appointed Heir and Lawful Owner of all things, also by Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time, He made (produced, built, operated) and arranged them in order."
Jesus held onto His true Identity and didn't give into satan's temptation, because He understood Who He really was. Jesus didn't fall into the same test that Adam and Eve gave into, but He retained "All power and authority over all creation," including over satan. The new creation family of God has been made joint heirs with Jesus and everything Adam lost in both Heaven and earth, has been restored to us. We've never truly understood the Full impact of what Jesus has done for us. We don't know our true identity in Christ, causing us to yield to the same thing Eve fell under when satan told her, "You will be like God and know the difference between good and evil and Blessing and calamity, if you eat the fruit." I've had all the calamity and evil that I want to know and I'm ready to know the good and Blessing, through Jesus!
When we truly understand our identity as the new creation children of God, we can forgo the Curse, the calamity, the evil and everything that resulted from Adam's fall. We can partake of the good and Blessing that God intended and has now restored to His children through Jesus. It doesn't do any good to have authority over all these things in Heaven, because there's nothing there to take authority over. There is no calamity, evil, Curse or satan to take authority over, in God's Presence. We're to take authority over these things here on earth.
In Hebrews 2:13-14 (Amplified) Paul writes about Jesus not being ashamed to call us brothers and sisters saying, "And He again says, My trust and assured reliance and confident hope shall be fixed in Him. And yet again, Here I Am, I and the children whom God has given Me. Since therefore, these His children share in flesh and blood (in the physical nature of human beings), He Himself in a similar manner partook of the same nature, that by going through death He might bring to naught and make no effect him who had the power of death, that is the devil." Jesus was a Man, filled with the Holy Spirit. He was without sin and overcame satan at every turn. Jesus gave the new creation people that power to overcome through His Resurrection and restored God's children back into the place before Adam's fall. He has opened up the way back into God's Presence again. Jesus has given the new creation the full authority and dominion by His Name and Blood.
Satan had clouded the minds of God's children, so we don't know our true identity in Christ Jesus. There's an old saying that says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Why should satan change his strategy, when it's worked so well? If God's new creation people could see ourselves as children of the Most High God, in Jesus, then we could break the darkness around us.
We've remained outside God's Throne of Grace, standing in the outer courts and performing works to curry God's favor, because we've continued seeing ourselves as old sinners and like the old covenant saints. We don't belong in the outer court, but remain there, because we focus on our past lives and sins. We live under satan's condemnation, because we don't see ourselves through the Father's eyes. God sees us as pure, holy, justified, Righteous, and accepted. He see us as His Own children, without a past life.
If we are new creations, then we don't have a past, but we are in Jesus and made new. We are like newborn babies, who have no past lives. The sin we were born because of Adam's fall, is no longer there, because we were born of God, in Christ. The new creation children of God are born without sin altogether and are created in God's Own Image and Likeness again. Many believe that it's "prideful" to confess who we've been created to be, in Jesus. They say, "How dare we declare that we are righteous and without sin." We're cleansed daily from the world and sin, by the Power of Jesus' Blood. Not just once, but forever. Does this mean that we never make mistakes or mess up? No, of course not, but the Blood of Jesus isn't like the blood of animals under the old covenant. The blood of goats and bulls could only cover sin, but the Blood of Jesus has eradicated and totally removed the stain of sin from us. Satan can only condemn us and make us feel guilty, by bringing up the past sins of our lives. We must know our true identity in Jesus and renew our minds with God's Word, in order to hold fast to our new identity and not give into satan's lies.
2Corinthians 3:18 (Amplified) says, "And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continue to behold in the Word of God as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His Very Own Image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of Glory to another; for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit." Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth in 1Corinthians 6:9-11 (Amplified) saying, "Do you not know that the unrighteous and wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled), neither the impure and immoral, nor idolators, nor adulterers, no those who participate in homosexuality, not cheats, swindlers and thieves, no greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foul-mouthed revilers, slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the Kingdom of God. And such some of you were once, But you were washed clean, purified by a Complete Atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin, and you were consecrated, set apart hallowed, and you were justified, pronounced Righteous, BY TRUSTING IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST and in the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD."
Paul is writing about our identities before being born-again in Christ Jesus and the identity we now have in Christ. We all were sinners once. The people under the Law had their sins covered by the blood of animals, which allowed the Father to Bless them to a degree, but they were still stained by the sin and death that came through the First Adam's fall. Jesus Christ shed His sinless Blood, so that our sins weren't just covered. Jesus' Sacrifice meant that our sins were completely removed and no stain of sin remained. We are to see ourselves in the mirror of God's sight and see ourselves as being cleaned by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
It can be difficult to forget who we once were and to see ourselves the way God' sees us. The unrenewed minds think it's arrogant and haughty to call ourselves righteous. We're not righteous in ourselves, but in His Righteousness. Jesus knew Who He was and never allowed the enemy to deceive Him. Many around Jesus, believed Him to be "arrogant," because He told them, "I am the Son of God" and "The Father and I are Once." Jesus wasn't being prideful. He was speaking Truth.
It's not prideful to see yourself as the Father sees you. It's Truth. When we deny our identity in Jesus, we're not speaking Truth. We're being deceived by the same lie satan used against Adam and Eve. We're either who the Father has created us to be in Jesus, or we need to get saved for real, because we didn't believe it when we got saved. You are a new creation altogether in Christ Jesus.
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