Most people think Christianity means getting a second chance. God forgives us, wipes the slate clean, and says, “Now try again and do better this time.”

However, the gospel does not offer a second chance. It gives you a new life.

The old you is not limping along somewhere behind you. The old you is gone, crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and never coming back.

Paul wrote,

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6)

He was not being poetic. He meant exactly what he said. At the cross, God gathered up everything you were in Adam, all the guilt, fear, addiction, bitterness, and shame, and placed it into Jesus. You were there in Him.

When He died, that entire identity died. When He rose, a new person rose with Him.

You are not the same person who used to live under the weight of failure and sin. You do not have two selves fighting for control. The old self was buried. The new self lives in union with Christ.

We often view the cross as a transaction, where Jesus pays our debt while we stand at a distance. But grace goes deeper than that. The cross was not only a substitution. It was inclusion.

You were co-crucified with Him. When His body was nailed to the wood, your sin-soaked, self-condemning identity was nailed there too.

That is why Paul said,

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

The “I” that once tried so hard to fix itself, prove itself, or punish itself is gone. What remains is Christ, expressing His life through you.

You are not living for Him. He is living through you. You have become the address where Jesus lives.

Grace is not leniency. It is not God turning a blind eye to sin. Grace is God sharing His very life with you.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells within your humanity, transforming the way you think and feel. Grace is Christ Himself moving in you, not just pardoning you; it is Christ Himself moving in you.

When you start to see grace that way, shame begins to lose its power. You realize you are not trying to become new. You are already new because the life of another fills you.

That is why guilt no longer fits you. You have outgrown it.

Imagine standing at a grave, your name carved into the stone, and trying to unearth what lies beneath. That is what happens every time we revisit old failures God has already buried.

We say things like, “I will always be this way,” or “I am just a sinner saved by grace.” We cling to those labels because they sound humble, but they are no longer true.

You were a sinner. You have been made righteous.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Repentance is not groveling over who you used to be. It is waking up to who you already are in Christ.

The old you is dead. Stop writing eulogies and start living resurrection.

Just think of it. Christ has so identified Himself with you that He can never look at you without seeing Himself. You are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. The Father sees you in His Son, and the Son delights to call you His own.

You do not have to perform for that love. You live from it.

The Christian life is not a climb toward God. It is resting in the God who has already made His home in you.

When you feel far from Him, remember this: you cannot be distant from the One who dwells inside you. You can only be distracted.

Take a breath. Let His nearness quiet your heart. The One who died for you is now alive in you.

Baptism is the picture of this truth. When you go under the water, you are announcing, “That old life is over.” When you rise again, you are declaring, “Christ and I now share one life.”

Every believer needs to know this is not just a ceremony. It is reality. You were buried with Him and raised with Him.

You do not need to earn your resurrection. You already walked out of the tomb the day He did.

When you know the old you is gone, you stop trying to prove yourself.

You stop performing for love, stop apologizing for being alive, stop trying to earn what can only be received.

God is not watching you from a distance, waiting for you to get it right. He is inside you, rejoicing over you with love.

The same grace that saved you sustains you. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead continues to breathe His strength into you.

The cross was your ending. The resurrection was your beginning. And now, every day, Christ lives His own life in you.

Lift your head. The tomb is empty.

The old you is gone.

Christ Himself is your life.

And the life you now live is heaven’s song playing through a human heart.