Destiny Grow · Foundations
Lesson 09 of 10What Happened to Me?
Understanding new birth, identity, and life in Christ
DESTINYAPOSTOLIC CHURCHPastor Travis
After conversion, many people know something has changed but do not yet have language for it. Scripture gives us a rich vocabulary: new birth, new creation, justification, adoption, sanctification, union with Christ, and life in the Spirit. These truths help you live from what God has done rather than returning to an old identity. — Pastor Travis Morgan
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Through the gospel response, God forgives, regenerates, joins us to Christ, gives His Spirit, brings us into His family and people, and begins a transformed life moving toward final redemption.
Read the Word
Key Scriptures
teaches the necessity of birth from water and Spirit.
describes death to sin and newness of life in Christ.
calls those in Christ a new creation.
explains life, identity, and adoption through the Spirit.
attributes washing and renewal to God’s mercy.
Born from above
Jesus tells Nicodemus that entry into God’s kingdom requires birth of water and Spirit. The new birth is not religious renovation of the old life. It is God’s creative work bringing a person into new-covenant life.
Water and Spirit correspond to the apostolic response and promise: baptism in Jesus’ name and reception of the Spirit. God cleanses, gives a new heart, and places His Spirit within His people, fulfilling prophetic hope.
United with Christ
Romans 6 explains that baptism joins our story to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The old ruler—sin—has been challenged. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, presenting our members to Him.
This does not mean temptation disappears or growth becomes automatic. It means sin is no longer the unquestioned master. A new identity and power have entered the struggle. We learn to live out what God has established.
New creation and right standing
In Christ there is new creation. God reconciles and does not count trespasses against those brought to Him. Justification speaks of God’s gracious verdict; regeneration speaks of new life; sanctification describes being set apart and progressively formed. These truths distinguish without dividing God’s saving work.
We do not wake each morning trying to purchase acceptance. We receive mercy and then learn to walk worthy of the calling. Grace establishes the relationship from which transformation grows.
Adopted into a people
The Spirit of adoption teaches us to cry to God as Father and bears witness that we are His children. New life is personal but not private. God adds believers to a body, gives brothers and sisters, and forms a holy people.
Our story becomes part of God’s story. We receive a new name, new loyalties, new family, new purpose, and future inheritance. Growth includes unlearning isolated and orphaned ways of living.
Grace Revealed
Grace does not hide truth. Grace reveals and enables.
Titus says God saved us not by works of righteousness we had done, but according to His mercy, through washing and renewal. New life is God’s creative gift before it becomes our disciplined practice.
Knowing Him
Doctrine leads toward intimacy.
New birth brings us into living communion. By the Spirit we cry to God as Father, walk with Christ, and learn His voice through Scripture. Intimacy is not a reward for advanced Christians; it belongs to the life into which every believer is born.
Why this matters for salvation
Every truth belongs within God’s saving purpose.
Salvation is not only cancellation of past guilt. It is birth, union, indwelling, adoption, incorporation into God’s people, transformation, and hope of inheritance. Understanding this protects believers from reducing salvation to a single moment.
Lesson notes
Remember these truths.
- The new birth is of water and Spirit.
- Believers are united with Christ’s death and resurrection.
- New creation produces a new identity and direction.
- Justification, regeneration, adoption, and sanctification describe dimensions of salvation.
- New life brings us into God’s family and mission.
Respond to the Word
Reflect and apply.
- Which old identity still tries to define you?
- What does it mean to reckon yourself alive to God?
- How does grace become the foundation for growth?
- Where do you need to live as an adopted child rather than an orphan?
- How are you participating in the new community God gave you?
Father, thank You for mercy, new birth, and adoption. Teach me to live from my identity in Christ. By Your Spirit, break old patterns, form new desires, connect me deeply to Your people, and make my life a witness to new creation. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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