Beta - Identity in Christ

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free ... I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:31-32,34-36)

"You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life."

Jesus (Luke 14:27,26 CEV)

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  (Galatians 2:20)

"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. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2)


This beta step enables a person to launch out into the process of coming to wholeness in themselves and achieving freedom from slavery to sinful patterns in their lives and freedom from deep regret for what happened in their past. It centres around the whole process of 'mind renewal', which is not brain-washing but rather a process of aligning your mind with the truth. Right belief determines right behaviour (cf Romans 12:2).

It essentially involves coming to a real, sound understanding of what it means that Jesus Christ is now your Lord, and just how significant it is that God the Father loves you and that you are now not only part of His kingdom but also part of His family! It is discovering your new identity in Christ and applying it to your life.

But it also involves the undoing of established false belief patterns from our past. This will include negative roots to our past being healed, cut off, and ripped out (those not brought to our attention in our initial repentance by the Holy Spirit). This is basically a removal of 'idols from the house', often those which were erected to address areas of rejection manifesting itself also in pride and unbelief, which lead to rebellion. The more of a life one has lived outside the will of God, often the more the roots there are that need to be ripped out!

The more thorough the repentance at conversion in the alpha stage, the less the repentance here! [And by repentance I do not just mean sorrow over sin, but truly how much one's mind changes over to really put one's trust in God alone in every area of one's life; the less this occurs, the more problems arise!] But unless identity is fully established, we allow the door to our past practices to remain open, and they may come and re-establish themselves again, perhaps even stronger!, and especially if one has a law-consciousness rather than a true understanding that through Christ's death we have died to the law as a regime and are now united with the risen Christ. We may easily add 'works' to our faith rather than understanding that we are only ever justified by grace (the 'natural' man struggles for self-justification, which is found only in comparing itself with others, in condemning and judging others; justification by grace leads to serving others).

And just like peeling an onion, this stage does not only occur once! It is often revisited through life as the Holy Spirit reveals more and more of the scum He wants to purge from the gold that we are! But major victories are often had right at the beginning! The more we allow our minds to be transformed and renewed, the more we become free!

Whilst this stage in the journey to wholeness can be done alone, it is best done in an accountable relationship with another person who is free in Christ, so that a thorough cleansing from the past is ensured as much as possible. It is also often facilitated through worship, prayer, and the preaching of the word; when one enters the Lord's presence, His purging fire is there to burn up the chaff!

Further discipleship will also reveal areas of one's life that may need to be addressed; the process of mind transformation may take a long time for some people, but in the context of good, loving, groups of Christians who are each wanting to live in accordance with the truth and are not afraid of facing the truth in their own lives, the process can be much quicker.

Let us now begin to explore some material which establishes just who we are in Christ, and how that can be applied to our lives.