No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:8-11 NKJV

To assume, take, or steal someone’s personal identity and use it without permission is identity fraud. Spiritual identity fraud is committed every time a Christian assumes the nature of the “old man” in his thinking and behavior. It is spiritual identity fraud because the believer has no permission to act in a way inconsistent with his new nature in the new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Furthermore, it is fraudulent because the believer has been bought with a price, i.e., the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and is no longer his own master and owner (1 Cor. 6:20).

Inasmuch as the believer has been washed, sanctified, and justified (1 Cor. 6:11), his identification should be as in Christ and not in the nature of the “old man.” You might ask: what is identity? Identification is the “condition and fact of being a certain person and recognized as such” (Webster II). One’s identity is recognized for what it is: the old nature in the flesh or the new nature in Christ. After you receive Jesus Christ, you should be recognized as “sanctified” because you have been washed, sanctified, and justified.

In Christ, you have been given a transformed identity (Col. 1:13-14). “For [you] are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them . . . having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:10-13).

By the blood of Christ, you have been consecrated as a new creature much like Aaron and his sons, in the Old Testament, were consecrated in priesthood. God instructed Moses to take the ram of consecration and have Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon its head for the purposes of identifying with sinless blood. Afterwards, Moses slew the ram and took some of its blood and placed it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear and the thumb of his right hand and upon the big toe of his right foot. The rest of the blood he sprinkled around the altar (Lev.8:22-24). This anointing and sprinkling of blood was emblematic and a picture of the believer–by the blood of Christ–being consecrated and transformed with a new identity by the renewing of his mind (Rom. 12:1-2).

In Christ, you don’t want to be recognized as who you used to be. You want to recognized–not in a fraudulent identity—but in your new identity in Christ. Because you’ve been washed, sanctified, and justified, you aren’t what you used to be, and you aren’t everything you’re going to be through the grace of God and the knowledge of the Lord!