Who Do You Say You Are? 

Read 2 Corinthians 6:16–18.

For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
—2 Corinthians 6:16

Can you believe that? Can you believe that you are the temple of God? That He dwells and walks in you? You can claim that you are who God says you are. You are not claiming it so that you become it, or so that God will do it, but you are claiming it because that is who you really are! You are a temple of God—not going to be, not hoping to be, not trying to be—you already are! You will either claim the old man and his traits or the new man and his traits. Whatever you claim, you will associate and identify with. Claim to be a sinner and you will live like one. Claim to be a righteous person and you will live like one. You can choose your new nature based on faith in the Word of God! Nobody can claim your new nature for you but you. You were sickly; you were a failure; you were subject to sin, anger, impatience, fear, worry, and doubt—but now you are a new creation, the right- eousness of God, the temple of almighty God. When you believe and claim this identity, your relationship with God will change. You will go from a “God and His people” (2 Corinthians 6:16) to a “father and son” (2 Corinthians 6:18) relationship. You will begin to act like God is your Father, to think like God is in you, and to treat the devil and demons like you are a new creature, a son of God. The Son in you will be manifested to the world, and you will begin to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Just through believing, associating, and identifying with who He has already made you by the new birth will cause you to grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:15).

Pastor Tom Kehres

You Are Who God Says You Are

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial?
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? —2 Corinthians 6:14–16

Here Paul is contrasting the old man with the new man. His intent was to show the clear separation of who you are now from who you were. What fellowship is there between righteousness and unright- eousness? Darkness and light? There is no fellowship and no relation- ship—they cannot coexist. He is telling us not to believe we are one part born of God and the other part born of the devil, one part a sinner and the other part righteous, one part of Christ and the other part of the devil. This will cause a dual-personality Christian—one who is righteous today but a sinner tomorrow, Christlike today but the old, sinful flesh tomorrow. Why? Because this person chooses to judge who he is by his own performance that day. You must never judge who you are by your performance, but you must believe who you are by His performance. Believing in what the Blood has made you will change your performance. You cannot claim to be a sinner and then live righteously, claim to be like the devil and live like Christ— there is no fellowship or communion between the two. When you sin now, it does not make you a sinner again, any more than if I put on a dress I would be a woman. You are the righteousness of God because God says so (2 Corinthians 5:21), and the more you believe it, the more sin will leave your life. If you sin, do not claim to be a sinner, but renounce the sin and reclaim your righteousness. You are who God says you are. If you believe it, you will live like God says you can live.

Pastor Tom Kehres

Who Are You, Really?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. —Romans 5:8–9 NKJV

While you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. Jesus went to the cross for you and shed His blood when you did not deserve it. He did it because of the unconditional love He had for you. Notice, it was while you were a sinner. You were a sinner, but because of His death, you are no longer a sinner. The sinner died or passed away, and you are now justified by the blood of Christ! You have been legally declared “not guilty”! Is it possible to be justified, yet believe you are still a sinner? . . . a failure? . . . unrighteous? Because of lack of knowl- edge, many Christians, even though they are born again, claim to be “a sinner saved by grace.” They choose to believe who they really are based on their performance rather than basing who they really are on the Blood. You are now justified; you can live “just as if” you’d never sinned. Here’s where your delegated right to “choose and become” comes in. You must believe who the Word says you are! And you can. You are not a recovering alcoholic, an angry man, a non-practicing drug addict, or a sickly person. The alcoholic, the angry man, the drug addict, the sickly person died the day you were born again. He has passed away, and you have become new—justified by the Blood. But you have been given the right to choose—the sinner or the saint, the healed or the sick, the bound or the free. You can be a new creation, justified by the Blood, and still claim and believe that you are the old sinner you were! What you believe, you will get. Choose today to be what the Word says you are, simply by believing the promises provided by the blood of Jesus. The choice is yours!

Pastor Tom Kehres

Be Who You Were Meant to Be!

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

Big changes came to you when you were born again and born of God. You are no longer the person you used to be. At the moment of your new birth, you looked the same in your body and thought the same way in your soul, but you were totally re-created in your spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). You are a new creature, or a new species of being that never existed before. You will now spend the rest of your life discovering who you have become by the grace of God! Notice that old things have passed away. Along with the new birth, there was a death that took place. The old person you used to be “passed away.” The sinner, the weak person, the person subject to sin, sickness, demons, fear, and worry has passed away, and all things are become new; “all things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18, emphasis added). You have been born into a Kingdom and an inheritance that are of God. You are now His child; you have the ability to grow to be like Him. Dominion and authority have been restored to you, the same as man had before Adam fell. You are not who you used to be. You are a new creature—not becoming a new creature, not struggling to be a new creature—you are a new creature! As you renew your soul (mind, will, and emotions) to the Word of God, the “new you” will start to come out of the inside of you. You will one day be totally “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2, empha- sis added). You will slowly become who you really are because of the new birth and the renewing of your mind.

Pastor Tom Kehres