Every Christian needs to come to realize exactly who they now are after having believed to receive salvation and the very “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2a) into their human spirit, whereby they became “one spirit” with “His Spirit.” 1Cor 6:17 … he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Have you thought what it really means to have been created in God’s image? At one time I thought that meant we somehow looked like God. Actually, that’s somewhat true. “God is spirit” (Jn 4:24) as to His substance (as gold ring is made of gold). But Jesus was born of human flesh… as a ‘man’? Yet, the words “let us make man is our image” (Gen 1:26) has a far greater meaning for us to consider.

Actually, it’s man’s free-will capacity to choose, to make choices – that makes man “in His image.” This capacity makes us individual persons because man was created with the power to choose. God is the ultimate free-will person and man was made “in His image”… making us individual persons.

Since man was created and given the free-will capacity to choose, Adam did make a choice in the beginning… though he chose wrongly. Having made that wrong choice mankind became usurped and came under the dominion of the Serpent also known as Satan, the Devil.

The choice Adam and Eve made on that fateful day was one which set and fixed the fallen nature in all mankind born of Adam’s lineage by his corrupted seed (sperma). The prevailing ‘Sin infection’ entered humanity by Adam’s sin. “Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world (of humanity), and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)

Man was originally created in God’s “image” to be a “giver” a ‘self-for-others.’ God by nature is a lover and giver. The Lord always out-flows to others - “For with thee (Lord) is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)

We know that the man who was originally created in God’s image fell to the wiles of the Sin of the Serpent and thereby became twisted as a ‘self-for-self,’ filled with greed, lust, self-seeking and lying to get what he wants. Man took on the very Sin-nature of the Satan, centered upon the “I” as seen the words ‘sIn’ and in ‘prIde.’

Only by the intervention of God sending His only begotten Son there came the provision of salvation for a fallen man… salvation and renewal by believing to receive Christ’s substitutionary cross-work on his behalf, thus freeing a believer from both ‘sins’ and from the tyrannical rule and dominion of the Serpents fallen ‘Sin-nature.’

Ephesians 2:1-5 And you hath he quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and ‘sins;’ 2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to ‘the prince of the power of the air,’ the ‘spirit’ that now ‘worketh in the children of disobedience:’ 3  Among whom also we all had our conversation (manner of living) in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us (made us alive) together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Paul wrote that now, as believers, “the  law (the operative nature)of the Spirit of Life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law and nature of our NEW being] has Freed Me from the  law (operative nature) of Sin and of death.” (Romans 8:2 (AMP).

We can now realize that…

• It was only for a brief time before the fall of Adam that it could be said that man was truly independent in making his choices… by free-will alone.
• After the Serpent’s deception and the fall of Adam, man had been hijacked or usurped by Satan. Rather than becoming “as gods” (Gen 3:5) as the Serpent had promised and lied to Eve, they became the servants or slaves of Sin (Rom 6:19), coming under Sin’s dominion… by the Sin-nature in man’s flesh.
• Now today, when anyone responds to their convicted conscience and simply believes to receive salvation in Christ… and he receives salvation from judgment and Christ’s “Spirit of life” to live in and with their human spirit. Then also we are simultaneously loosed from the ‘power of Sin’ that provokes sinning. Yes, the Sin-nature yet remains in our flesh body (cf. Rom 7:17-23, 8:3b) until our body dies or we are Raptured to heaven at His coming in the cloud (1Thes 4:13-18), but believers are endowed with Christ’s overcoming resurrection life as “the power of God” to live righteously in and through believers who will yield to His life moving within them.

Thankfully we as believers are freed from ‘the power of Sin.’ Paul here in Romans 8:3 (below) tells us “Sin in the flesh” has been “condemned” in the flesh - locked away, restricted, limited to and  thereby disempowered from ruling over a believers soul, which is off limits; just as a house may be ‘condemned’ and locked.  Oh yes, we can still hear Sin lying to us but we know who we really are in Christ. We’ve been bought and freed from the slave-block with the precious blood of Christ.

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, Condemned Sin In The Flesh: (Romans 8:3).

The moment one believes their old fallen self is “crucified with Christ” and they are placed into “the body of Christ” (cf. 1Cor 12:13) and securely “sealed” there (Eph 1:13) by His Spirit.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with [him], (so) that the body of Sin might be annulled (made of no effect), (so) that we should no longer serve sin.” (Romans 6:6 (Darby)

Now, in this new forgiven and liberated relationship of unconditional love with God, the believer has ALL his sins forgive; he is deemed justified from the penalty of sins and freed from Sin’s dominion (cf. Rom 8:2)

1. Forgiven: “… you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened (made alive) together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses (sins);” (Colossians 2:13)
2. Justified: “… justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2)
3. Freed by: “the (operative) law of the Spirit of Life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our NEW being] has Freed Me from the (operative) law of Sin and of death.” (Romans 8:2 (AMP)

Now we may enjoy this never before available intimate relationship, which is gained by simply receiving God’s free gift of Grace, through our Faith in Christ Alone (cf. Eph 2:8-9).

It’s only reasonable that upon seeing and receiving such an all-inclusive freely given salvation, our normal response would be that our love for God would grow steadily as we ‘learn of Him’ and the riches of the inheritance we have “in Christ.” Paul thus says we thereby constrained by the bands of His love now realized by us.

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

(1 Corinthians 6:20)

 “For the love of Christ constraineth (binds) us (to Him)…” (2 Corinthians 5:14a)

In this new love relationship we learn to give up our old self-loving way of self-serving under Sin’s tyrannical rule and become Christ’s servants… willingly… not by reason of performance under any requirement of “the law.” Where once we were servant (slaves) to the Sin-nature, now we are;

• Free from the Penalty for Sins by Jesus’ shed blood… and also we are. Could anything be plainer than those passages in Paul’s Galatian epistle, where he says by the Spirit:

“Christ Hath Redeemed Us From The Curse Of The Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).“But when the fulness of the time was come, God Sent Forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, “To Redeem Them That Were Under The Law, (So) That We Might Receive The Adoption Of Sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).

• Free from the Power of Sin in the flesh since “our Old Man is crucified with Christ” (Rom 6:6-7).
• Eternally alive “in Christ” from the very moment Christ’s Spirit came into our spirit to be one with us (cf. 1Cor 6:17)… as the NEW US (cf. Gal 2:20).

This now is the basis of the REAL You.

We were all conceived and born ‘in Sin’… but now Sin is no longer our nature. We’ve been made entirely “new… In Christ.”

“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).

In light of these facts, we and all men since Adam can say we’ve never really been an ‘independent self.’ We were born as a Servants of the Sin-nature in our flesh… but now being “in Christ” we are born of His life and nature… we’ve become crazy lovers of Christ and now His ‘willing’ Servants. Now we enjoy the security of our new irrevocable relationship with God. Though we were originally born as a Sinful ‘Satan-self,’ now we are a new ‘Christ-self’ – Christ Is Now Our New Person.

We are ‘individual,’ free-will, members of His body, individual but not independent of “Christ who is our life” (Col 3:4). As Paul wrote Christ is “all” and “in you all.”

“One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:6)

Some people read self-help books, go to psychiatrist and self-help groups, trying to ‘find their real self,” but we’ve found our ‘Real Self’ by simply reading and believing “the words of God.”

Now we know we’re bearers of Christ’s resurrection Life… in our Individual Form… now to be an expression of His loving, righteous life toward other. We’ve been miraculously transformed in spirit, soul (mind) to a new mindset… from being self-lovers and become lovers of others – just as our Father is... we near His very “image”

Paul wrote that it’s now “…Christ IN YOU… the hope of Glory (His expression)” (Col 1:27).

“In this [union and communion with Him] (His) love is brought to completion and attains perfection (completion) with us, that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because… AS HE IS, SO ARE WE in this world.” (1 John 4:17 (AMP)