The One New Man

We need to know our identity (Prov 23:7). It has 2 sources: our (1) CREATION in Adam (Gen 1:26-27) and (2) REDEMPTION in Christ. Since we’re born in Adam, we share his identity as God’s image, to reflect & express His glory. As part of our identity, He created us male or female. In Adam, we all sinned & are under divine judgment. Our nature, inherited from Adam, is prideful rebellion against God. Man’s collective sin became so bad, God judged it at Noah’s Flood, after which He told man to fill the earth (Gen 9:1). But man rebelled again at Babel (Gen 11:1-9). So, God scattered man over the earth, dividing us into nations. This is God’s will, designed to restrain the spread of sin. It’s God’s idea to create national identities, with different characteristics, that are part of our identity & inheritance in Adam. We embrace & celebrate these aspects of our identity, as we should embrace our God-given sexual identity. As man separated into nations, they developed their own cultures & ways, so certain genes became dominant in populations, creating different abilities & appearances. Though we’re divided into nations, we belong to one human family in Adam (Acts 17:26), and so share a common inheritance (good & bad), so we’re all equal. Globalism tries to override the power of nation states to set up a one-world government. This was Nimrod’s vision at Babel, so he could rule over all mankind. A rebel against God (Gen 10:9), running the world is a worst-case scenario. Satan is trying to rebuild Babel, putting his antichrist in charge of a one-world government (called Babylon). He’ll succeed for a short time before Christ destroys it at His Return, and sets up His one world Government. Although many aspects of our natural inheritance & identity are God-given, the great problem is that we also inherit from Adam his identity & nature as a sinner. So, part of our natural identity is that by natural birth, we belong to a fallen race under Divine Judgment, whatever other natural positive qualities we might have. God has a solution for the Fall. Christ came as the 2nd Adam, to be the head of a new human race in Him, the source of a new identity. He came to bring forth a New Creation, a new family in Himself. In His death as the last Adam, He took on Himself all the fallen aspects of our Adamic inheritance of sin & death, and cancelled it, and by His resurrection He brought us into a new inheritance in the New Covenant, the firstborn from the dead of a New Creation, a new species of humanity, with His spiritual DNA. For those who receive Him as Saviour & Lord, He provides a New Birth of our spirit, making us a New Man in Christ. Thru our union with Him, we receive a new nature, identity & origin-history, for we’ve died & risen with Christ, and now belong to Him. As our 1st (physical) birth in Adam made us an inheritor of Adam, so our new (spiritual) birth in Christ makes us an inheritor of all that’s Christ’s (John 1:12-13, 3:3-7, Eph 4:23-24). We still have the God-given aspects of our natural identity & inheritance (gender, gifts, personality & nation), but our new identity & inheritance in Christ is far more important & dominant. By our union with Christ, all God’s blessings of God are ours in Christ (Rom 8:32, 2Cor 1:20, Eph 1:3). Whoever we are in the natural, the most important truth about us is who we are in Christ (Col 3:9). In this New Creation reality, Christ is all important, and He is in us all. We’re all equal in Him. National & natural distinctions still exist, but are overwhelmed by the greater truth of our identity in Christ – we belong to Him, created in His image, in God’s family & Kingdom. National distinctions & natural differences count for nothing as far as our inheritance in Christ is concerned (Phil 3:4-7). We’re all equal inheritors of salvation & eternal life (Rom 10:12-13). God has no favourites (2Cor 5:14-17). The new overrules and supersedes the old. We don’t just have a new individual identity in Christ, but a new corporate identity. We’re not just individuals; together we form one New Man in Christ (Eph 2:8-15), His New Creation, one People of God, one Body & Bride of Christ, one forever Family, living stones forming a single Temple of God. We’re God’s people, redeemed by His Blood (Rev 5:8-10). We have a common origin in His death & resurrection, a common identity in Christ, and a common purpose to live for (glorify) Him who loved us (Gal 3:26-28). We are all ONE (entity) in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28). As in Adam, we’re all of one blood (Acts 17:26), so in Christ, we’re of one blood (the Blood of Christ). Being in Christ & His family is our primary (core) identity. Our allegiance to Christ overwhelms all other loyalties, and His command is to love one another. We celebrate our natural & national diversity, but most of all we celebrate our identity & unity in Christ, where God has broken down all racial divisions.