Biblical Growth and Change Series
“I will never change. This is just who I am.”
We may never say those words aloud, yet we can begin to believe them after returning to the same sinful response. We have confessed it before. We have intended to do better. When we fail again, our history seems to tell us what we can expect from the future.
But if we belong to Christ, our history cannot tell the whole story. God has done something that changes our relationship to sin and gives us reason to pursue obedience with hope. He has united us to His Son.
Union with Christ means that, through faith and by the work of the Holy Spirit, believers are joined to Jesus Christ. He represents us before God, and we receive the saving benefits of His death and resurrection. We belong to Him, and His life is the source of our new life. This relationship does not erase our individuality or make us divine. It establishes who we are before God and how we are now called to live.
This truth is central to biblical growth and change. We need more than instructions about what to do differently. We need to understand what God has already accomplished for us in Christ and how that reality enables our obedience.
Romans 5:12–21 helps us understand the importance of our representative before God. Through Adam, sin and death entered human experience. Through Jesus Christ, those who receive His grace are given righteousness and life. Salvation brings us into a new relationship with God because we now belong to Christ.
Paul develops the implications in Romans 6. After explaining the abundance of God’s grace, he asks, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” His answer is emphatic: “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1–2).
Grace does not give believers permission to remain content with sin. Our union with Christ has changed our relationship to it.
In Romans 6:3–4, Paul connects baptism with the believer’s participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism portrays our identification with the Savior who died, was buried, and rose again. Those who belong to Him have been brought into new life so that they might walk in obedience.
Paul goes on to explain that our old self was crucified with Christ so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6). Sin remains present, and its temptations can be strong. But it no longer holds the dominion it once had. We are not bound to obey it as our master.
This distinction matters when a familiar temptation returns. The presence of temptation does not mean nothing has changed. The difficulty of obedience does not mean obedience is impossible. We belong to Christ, and we must learn to respond according to that truth.
Romans 6:11 calls believers to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Paul is not asking us to imagine something into existence. He is calling us to recognize what God has established and live accordingly.
He then makes our responsibility practical. We are to refuse sin’s rule and present ourselves to God as people who have been brought from death to life (Romans 6:12–13). What we do with our bodies matters. Our words and actions are to serve the Lord to whom we now belong.
Consider the believer who has developed a habit of dishonesty. When telling the truth might bring embarrassment, the old response can feel natural. Yet being united to Christ gives that person a different foundation for action. Approval is no longer something that must be secured through deception. Acceptance before God rests in Christ. The believer can ask for the Spirit’s help, tell the truth, and accept the consequences without returning to a lie for protection.
The same truth speaks to resentment. We may feel justified in rehearsing an offense because someone has genuinely wronged us. But our union with Christ calls us to consider more than what was done to us. We also consider the Savior who has forgiven us and the obedience He now requires. By His grace, we can begin putting bitterness away and practicing forgiveness, even while addressing the wrong with wisdom.
Union with Christ does not make these responses effortless. It gives us a reason to pursue them and the power to do so through the Holy Spirit.
Paul expresses this personal dependence in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” He continues by explaining that he lives by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him.
Paul still acts and makes decisions. Yet his life is now governed by his relationship with Christ. He lives in dependence upon the Savior rather than attempting to establish his righteousness through the law. The same dependence belongs to every believer.
Romans 8:9–10 connects belonging to Christ with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Christ’s presence within His people is a spiritual reality brought about by the Spirit. God has not given us a new identity while leaving us without help to live according to it.
Romans 8:13 brings that help into the struggle against sin. Believers are called to put sinful deeds to death by the Spirit. We have a real responsibility to resist sin, and we depend upon Him as we do. We pray for help and act upon the truth God has revealed.
This corrects two common responses to the need for change. We may rely upon determination as though sufficient effort could produce holiness apart from Christ. Or we may become passive, waiting for God to remove a sinful habit while continuing to practice it. Scripture calls us to active obedience sustained by His power.
Jesus describes this dependence through the relationship between a vine and its branches. In John 15:4–5, He tells His disciples to abide in Him because a branch cannot bear fruit by itself. He explains, “I am the vine; you are the branches,” and makes their dependence unmistakable: “apart from me you can do nothing.”
A branch does not supply its own life. It bears fruit because it receives life from the vine. Our spiritual fruitfulness likewise depends upon Christ.
Abiding in Him involves continuing in faith and receiving His Word. In John 15:7–10, Jesus connects abiding with His words remaining in us, prayer, and obedience to His commandments. This gives daily expression to our dependence. We read Scripture to know Him and understand His will. We bring our needs before Him in prayer. We act upon His commands, trusting Him when obedience is costly.
These practices do not create our union with Christ or earn His love. They express our dependence upon the Savior to whom we already belong.
When we recognize a recurring sin, we can bring it before Him specifically. Instead of only praying, “Help me have a better day,” we might pray, “Lord, I am tempted to defend myself rather than acknowledge my wrong. Help me believe what You say about my standing in Christ and confess honestly.” Then we take the step of obedience before us.
We also need to remember that union with Christ joins us to His people. We are members of His body and are called to grow together (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). A trusted believer can help us recognize where we are thinking and acting inconsistently with our new life. Receiving that help is one way we depend upon God’s provision.
Our union with Christ also gives us hope when progress seems slow. Colossians 1:26–27 describes the once-hidden mystery now revealed among the Gentiles as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Our future rests upon the Savior who dwells in His people. The work God is doing now leads toward the day when we will be fully conformed to Christ.
That hope does not remove today’s responsibility. In Colossians 3:1–4, Paul reminds believers that they have been raised with Christ and that their lives are hidden with Him in God. He then calls them to put sinful practices to death and put on conduct consistent with their new life. Again, what God has done becomes the foundation for what His people are commanded to do.
When we fail, we return to this foundation. We confess our sin rather than conceal it. We remember that our standing before God rests upon Christ, and we resume obedience in dependence upon His Spirit. Failure must be addressed, but it does not have to become a declaration that change is beyond our reach.
Where does this truth need to shape your response today? Consider a pattern you have begun to regard as permanent. Bring it under the instruction of God’s Word. Ask what obedience looks like in that situation, and take the next step with confidence in His provision.
If you belong to Christ, you have been brought into new life. Sin is still an enemy, but it is no longer your master. Your Savior has given you His Spirit, and you can pursue change as someone who belongs to Him. Our hope rests in the Christ who saves us and continues His work within us.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV.