He has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose me in Him before the foundation of the world, that I would be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:3-4). In Christ I am a new creature, the old things have passed away; new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So now I can lay aside the old self and put on my new self, which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Ephesians 4:22-24). I am now in the process of being brought into a true knowledge of God, being radically transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). This is God’s mystery, hidden from past generations but now manifested to His saints—Christ in me, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27).

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself