The father loves to give us permission to be like him, to view ourselves as he does and then to take on that identity. He gave Jesus both as savior, to bring closure to the old nature, and as Redeemer, to turn a sin habit into righteous behavior. He gave the Holy Spirit to each of us to empower us in the process of being made in his image.
He gave us authority and the right to confess our new identity, refuse temptation, and choose righteousness. The Lord behaves towards us as though we are dead to sin and alive to him (Romans 6: 11) and gives us the authority and permission to do the same. We behave towards him as he behaves towards us. He considers us to be dead and that our new life is hidden with Christ in him (Colossians 3: 3). Death is an end of something. He who has died is freed from sin (Roman 6: 7).
The good news is now that we are in Christ, we get to become everything that he is in his relationship with God. For the death that he died, he died to sin once and for all; But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so (in the same way) consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6: 10-11). As he is, so are we in this world (1 John 4: 17).
God has dealt with sin once and for all in Christ. He is now focused entirely on righteousness.
In Christ it is grace that reigns in life through righteousness (Romans 5: 21). Jesus did not just take our sin; He became the embodiment of it, so that we could become the embodiment of his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5: 21). Now that we are free from sin we can become servants of righteousness. Every day we get to present ourselves as servants of righteousness (Roman 6: 18-19).
In the gospel it is the righteousness of God that is always being revealed; because the righteous live by faith (Romans 1: 16-17). We are learning to love righteousness. We are focused only on being right with God and enjoying all the benefits of sanctification (Romans 6: 22).
This incorruptible gift of being in Christ is only by God’s doing. Jesus now becomes our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1: 30).
God dealt with sin once and for all by the sacrifice of Jesus. It would be an insult to Jesus if the father still considered sin to be alive in us. Our old nature is dead; It is our new nature only that occupies his attention.
The Holy Spirit works in us to establish righteousness as a lifestyle. He does that by empowering us to become Christ like. He always reminds us of who we are in the beloved. He speaks to our new position in Christ. We have been raised up and seated with him in heavenly places in Christ. We have a new disposition and a new dimension of life to focus from (Colossians 3: 1-3), because our life is hidden with Christ in God.
When the Holy Spirit puts his finger on a part of our life that’s not working, it is to point to our righteousness and to establish it in this part of our life. We no longer have a sin nature; It died. We may have a sin habit that is being transformed into righteousness. The Lord’s approach to us is not get rid of this and you can become that; rather, he says, you are this, you have no need of that.
We do not become a new person by changing our behavior; we discover the person we already are in Christ and behave accordingly. The role of the Holy Spirit is to empower that discovery and transformation.
Focus on the new nature in Christ. Who does the Holy Spirit say you are in Christ? Write these things down and know that the Holy Spirit will joyfully establish these truths in your behaviors.