You Are Not Who You Used to Be: Breaking the Power of the Old Identity
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
You have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. — Colossians 3:9–10
Old identities are stubborn. A man can be born again and still introduce himself, in his own head, by the name of his worst season. A woman can be a daughter of God and still hear her father’s verdict louder than the Father’s. The new creation is a fact. Living from it is a fight — and the fight is mostly about what we agree with.
Put off, put on
Paul’s picture in both passages is clothing. The old self is a garment that no longer fits the person wearing it; the new self is the garment made for him. In Colossians the putting off and putting on are already done — you have put off, you have put on. In Ephesians they are commanded — put off, put on. Both are true. The exchange happened at conversion; the wardrobe is worked out daily.
And notice where the work happens: "be renewed in the spirit of your minds" (Ephesians 4:23). The old identity does not live in your spirit any more. It lives in your thinking — in the reflexes, labels and self-talk carried over from the old life. That is the ground to be retaken.
Three places the old man hides
- In your vocabulary. "I am just a sinner." "That is how I am." "I will never change." Every sentence like that is the old self asking for its clothes back.
- In your expectations. If you expect to fail, you have already agreed with an identity God has buried.
- In your reactions. Anger, shame, self-protection — these are often old-self habits firing before the new self has spoken.
How the new creation thinks
The new self, Paul says, is "created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). It is not neutral. It has a nature, and that nature is Christ’s. So the renewing of the mind is not positive thinking; it is accurate thinking. You are learning to think about yourself the way God does, because His account is the true one.
Practically, that means answering the old voice with Scripture in the first person. Not "I am trying to be righteous," but "I am the righteousness of God in Christ." Not "I am a slave to this," but "sin shall not have dominion over me." You are not lying to yourself. You are agreeing with your Creator about His creation.
You are not who you used to be. The sooner your thoughts, your mouth and your habits catch up with that, the sooner the people around you will meet the person Christ has made.