Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience: In which you also walked some time, when you lived in them. But now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Someone once illustrated how our behavior is linked to our position and identity in Christ through a humorous analogy. They described a scene in which a man is suddenly accosted by a ferocious bear while on a walk through the woods.
The Man runs into a shack. Though the structure is securely buttressed by thick timbers, he is unaware of the fact, and he thanks the grizzly will burst through at any moment.
This man was safe the moment he fled into the shack. However, since he was ignorant of that fact, he trembled in terror. They pointed out; the poor man could have died of a fear-induced heart attack even though he was secure.
The premise is: If we do not understand who we are in Christ and our security in Him, we will act accordingly. As Christians, we are new creatures. We are dead to our old ways and habits which ruled before our salvation. They are no longer our master. We are now holy, sanctified, and blameless before God.
However, many of us still live anxiously in our old shacks of insecurity, inferiority, and inadequacy. We do not know who we truly are, and therefore, we act much like we did before our experience at the cross.
