(John 4:24), functions within the Christian. Swiss
theologian, Karl Barth, noted that
“the being and work of Jesus Christ in the form of the being and
work of His Holy Spirit is the original and prefigurative existence
of Christianity and Christians.” 15The indwelling presence of the ontological essence of
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the spirit of a
Christian constitutes the divine reality of a “new creature”
in Christ. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature” (II
Cor. 5:17). This is not an assumed identity wherewith to
engage in role-playing of Christian living, but a new
spiritual identity as a “new man” (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10) in
Christ. The deepest sense of one’s identity is in
identification with the spiritual being that constitutes one’s
spiritual condition.
Here, again, we confront the dualistic detachment
evident in Christian religion, that posits a separate and
innate essence of human being with a self-generated
capability to create or assume personal identity, nature,
spirituality, character, image, life or immortality,
independent of God. Only in spiritual union with the
ontological essence of Jesus Christ can the Christian derive
these spiritual realities, contingent upon and indivisible