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Who you are is more important than what you do.
"Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 GNT
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Ephesians 1:6 KJV
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV
“For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)”
Romans 5:17 KJV
All of these verses speak of who we are THROUGH Him, and never about what we do. HE has made us a new being, HE has made us accepted, HE has made us righteous (not because of what we do, but because of what HE did) and we reign through HIM.
When we put our focus on what we should be doing in order to achieve the aspects spoken about in these verses, that's like saying that Jesus was not enough. But when we accept who we are THROUGH Him, the good things that we do will come from understanding our identity as righteous children of God. And those good things will be far better than anything we could achieve or do on our own. We should strive to be like Jesus. He understood His identity. He wants us to be like Him.
But what about bearing good fruit?
That is a wonderful question!
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them." Matthew 7:15-20
It is a beautiful thing that God, even in creation, illustrated this truth for us. The reason that an apple tree does not bear oranges is not because it labors and tries hard to bear apples instead of oranges. Instead, the apple tree does not bear oranges, simply because, it is an apple tree. It bears apples because of what it is, it's identity IS an apple tree. So you see, even the apple tree's identity is of primary importance to the kind of fruit that it bears. It does not struggle to bear apples rather than another type of fruit. It simply bears them. Because bearing apples is what is natural to an apple tree, that is it's nature.
Is it possible to do things that are unnatural to you? Is it possible to have an identity crisis? Absolutely! This is why knowing your identity, your true nature, who you are in Christ, is so important!
Our identity as righteous children of God should, and will, produce good fruit. Because of who we are, the good things we do should come naturally out of who we are. For this is our new nature.
In other words, the good fruit comes from us being made righteous through Christ. Bearing good fruit does not make us righteous.
Christ making us righteous comes first. And therefore, our identity is of primary importance if we want to do good things. Again, Jesus understood His identity, and that is where His good works came from.
Who you are is more important than what you do. Be like Jesus. Know who you are.