What is Meant by Spiritual Identity?
This is a critically important doctrine which is largely overlooked or misunderstood throughout much of Christianity. Personally, this just blows my mind due to the fact that the testimony of Scripture is so obvious on the matter. When I first discovered this reality for myself, I was sure I was the only big dope who didn’t understand it…due to its being so obvious in the text of Scripture. Since, then I have only become more and more convinced that many (if not most) Christians (did you catch how nice I was being?…notice I did not say, “other dopes” 😉) do not understand it.
I’ll attempt to keep my explanation brief, yet thorough enough to understand.
Unconverted Man
Essentially, it comes down to this: According to Scripture, man is made up of two fundamental parts – flesh (or, body) and spirit (Mt 26:41 & 2Co 7:1). According to our normal, natural, fallen condition, we are all sinful in both flesh and spirit from conception forward. It would be true to say of the unbeliever, that he not only commits sin, but that he is sin. He is sinful through-and-through. He can do nothing to please God and can only sin all of the time. God puts it this way:
~ Ps 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
~ Isa 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
~ Heb 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God.
~ Ro 14:23 Everything that does not come from faith is sin.
You might think of it like this…
Imagine I am covered in sloppy, wet mud from head to toe. I am a walking mud-pile, with only two white eyeballs showing through all of the filth.
Though I may desire to do some nice things for you, you would likely prefer I did not. Though I might offer to give you a hug; to make your lunch or to wash your new white shirt, you would likely decline my offers.
Why?
Because everything I would do – everything I would touch – would be covered in filth. Everything I had done would be tainted by the filthy stains I had left behind. In this filthy condition, I could not help but to leave filth’s stains behind, in all I’d do.
So it is with my sin. When sinful through-and-through (in both flesh and spirit), everything I think, say and do is tainted by sin. This is why God cannot see anything other than filthy rags when, even my best attempts to please him, are done apart from saving faith. This is why God must declare:
~ Ro 14:23 Everything that does not come from faith is sin.
And:
~ Heb 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Converted Man
By contrast, however, when the Holy Spirit produces faith in the heart of man, he also transforms him, he births new life in him and the man becomes a new creation.
I want to be very clear here. Many Christians today are confused by the sinner/saint status of the Christian. Because we still sin, many (in my experience, it is not just many but most) Christians seem to believe that God merely chooses to see us as new and/or righteous. They believe that God has NOT actually made us righteous, but only chooses to see us that way. “After all,” they seem to conclude. “I am obviously still a sinner. How could I possibly be actually, literally perfect or righteous?” They believe there is only a change in status (how God sees us), but not a change in condition (how God has made us to be). Sure, they may realize they have some new, improved desires, but they seem to see this as only the result of a new attitude, not a fully new condition.
But, Scripture doesn’t allow for these faulty conclusions. God has made it very clear that he not only sees us as new (sees us as righteous), but he has actually, literally made us new in spirit. Though our sinful flesh remains, the spirit of the true Christian is entirely new, robed in the righteousness of Christ.
Don’t take my word for it. Here is what God has to say about it:
~ Ezek 36:25-26 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
~ Jn 3:3-6 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again…I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
~ 2 Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
~ Isa 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness
~ 1 Co 6:17 Anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. (CSB)
~ Ro 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
This last verse (Ro 8:10) gives us the clearest picture of just what it is that I am referring to. As Christians, we have been given new life in spirit. We are literally perfectly righteous – robed in the righteousness of Christ, one spirit with him. Yet, this new spirit is wrapped up (so to speak) in our remaining sinful flesh. We are literally a saint and a sinner at the same time. Not because God merely chooses to see us as a saint even though we are really only a sinner, but because we have been perfected in Christ (in spirit), even though a sinful flesh remains.
This is key! For God sees us (views us, looks at us) not according to the flesh, but according to our having been made a new creation in spirit.
~ 1 Sam 16:7 The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
~ 1 Pt 3:4 Instead, it [a woman’s beauty] should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
~ Jn 4:23-24 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
~ Ro 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.
Summary & Conclusion
Therefore, the unbeliever, who is sinful through-and-through in both flesh and spirit can do nothing good in God’s sight. While the Christian, on the other hand, is viewed only according to his righteousness in Christ. Yes, God is aware of the sins of his flesh and may even discipline him in order to keep him in the true faith and from falling away (once again dying in spirit). But he is seen (and judged, if you will) by God according to his made-new spiritual identity.
Now, that we (hopefully) have this clear in our minds, what does this have to do with UOJ?
Proponents of UOJ state that God has declared all (even the unbeliever) to be justified, forgiven and righteous in his sight…that all (including the unbeliever) have had a change in their status (how God views them), though not a change in their nature (how God has made them to be).
UOJ, therefore, assumes justification (the declaration of a change in status) comes before sanctification (a change in nature). This, however, is never proven by the proponent of UOJ.
I would argue that justification and sanctification essentially happen simultaneously and that God only declares the sinner to be righteous as a result of his having been made righteous by way of a new spirit (see: Related Question below). In other words, God only declares to be true that which is actually true, not that which is untrue.
Otherwise, according to UOJ, God is declaring the man who is still sinful through-and-through (in both flesh and spirit); the man who cannot possibly please God (Heb 11:6); the one whose best efforts at righteous acts are nothing but filthy rags (Isa 64:6); the one whose every action (in fact, he himself) is only sin apart from faith (Ro 14:23), as not only justified, but righteous. Effectively, UOJ states that God declares a lie to be true.
By contrast, according to JIC, God remains true to himself and only declares those who have been made new (those who have been made righteous), to be righteous.
Therefore, spiritual identity, by itself, disproves UOJ.
Which is more consistent with the entire testimony of Scripture, UOJ or JIC?