Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

You look a whole lot better in Christ than you do outside of Christ. Mark Hankins

When you get born again, you become a brand-new creation in Christ Jesus. You are re-created. In the new birth you are not just a forgiven sinner, but a brand-new creation in several ways.

First, your spirit has been re-created with the very life and nature of God on the inside of you. Second, you are not a Jew, and you are not a Gentile. You are a new nationality, a new species of being. You are in Christ Jesus, so you are blessed with Abraham’s blessing. You are a new creation.

Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man BE in Christ, he is…”  We often talk about what we are trying to be, needing to be, struggling to be, or going to someday be, but nobody ever told us what we “be.”  We should be talking about who and what you are — every good thing that is in you now. This is something that is already yours the moment you are in Christ Jesus because of the grace of God.

Confession: I am a new creature in Christ! I am not trying to be–I AM NOW! Every good thing that is in Christ is now in me! 

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

No other religion can say what the Christian can; that is, that our God lives in us. T. L. Osborn

The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. The identical life that raised Christ from the dead is inside the believer. We share the same righteousness and the same victory that is in Christ. If we see what God sees, we would see that we have the same Spirit that raised Christ. We have the same anointing that was and is on Him. He is the Anointed One, and we are in Him.

God did not give us an inferior product. He gave us the very life of Christ Himself; it is identical! Satan does not want the Church to understand or walk in the reality of our redemption in Christ.

Once you climb up in Him, then God will change your name and tell you who you are. Your friends and family will not tell you who you are. God says, “I will tell you who you are!”

Confession: I was identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. Right now, I have the same spirit, the same righteousness, the same victory, and the same blessing!

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all,then were all dead. (2 Corinthians 5:14)

Jesus was not a martyr; He was a substitute, one man who died for every man. Mark Hankins

Jesus took our place.  He took our curse and died our death.  He took our condition so that we could have His condition.  He was identified with us.  We were there in His death and resurrection, because He died for us, we died with Him. Because He was raised for us, we were raised with Him. Everything Jesus did, He did for us and it is credited to our account as if we did it. Substitution progresses to identification and union with Christ.

In the four Gospels, a disproportionate amount of space is given to the actual events of the death and resurrection of Christ. Every sermon in the book of Acts and all of Paul’s epistles center on what happened in the death and resurrection of Christ. You can get anything you need from this event. Healing, prosperity, joy, victory — whatever you need — you can get from the fact that,“I was crucified with Christ. He took my place because He was my substitute. He took my condition.”

Confession: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)