The DNA of the New Man

By Paul Joseph

The Bible says that Jesus was far above the angels. “He became as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father?'” Or again, “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son.”  (Heb 1: 4,5). 

When God created Adam, He gave him pure DNA, without contamination, which placed man in a lineage superior to that of the angels and every other creature in the universe. God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” (Gen 1:26a). This means that Adam’s genetic code came directly from God, the Trinity itself! God elevated man to the same level of authority as Himself, and man became superior to every other creature. The Apostle Paul said, “So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.’” (1 Cor 15:45). 

The writer of Hebrews explains, “It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking… in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for Whom and through Whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He suffered. Both the One who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” “For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham’s descendants.” (read Heb 1 and 2). He’s basically explaining that not only the Divine Nature Attributes (DNA adapted) of the born-again believer is far above that of the angels, but is of the same blood and DNA as Christ.

The original covenant was given to Abraham, but in actuality, it was given to Jesus as His seed. “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but, “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.” (Gal 3:16). So we, as born again believers, get into the fullness of the promises made to Abraham through Christ, without any of the curses because all curses were put on Christ at the cross.

Furthermore, the apostle John starts his gospel saying, “In the beginning was the Word… In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Because we’ve inherited life from Jesus, we’ve also inherited His light. And because God is love, we’ve also inherited His ‘Agape’ nature. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 

So with His light, we cast out darkness. With His life, we cast out death, and with His love, we cast out fear. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” 

John further explains in his epistle (1Jn 1:8), “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”  We were in sin when we belonged to the devil’s kingdom of darkness, but now that we’ve changed bloodline, we’re free from sin.

To make Jesus our Savior is to receive a new genetic code — and this is like receiving a passport to be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The grace of God allows us to have His DNA. Remember what Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (Jn 3:36). 

Jesus came to destroy what the devil had done to man. He came to hack God’s code from the devil’s conspiracy to steal man’s soul. Satan had sunk man into darkness and into sin, but Christ redeemed man to be re-born in the kingdom of light and righteousness. So sin is no longer in our DNA. “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” (1Jn 3:9). That means we are free from the sin DNA that we were born with.

Does that mean that Christians cannot sin? No, but it does mean we’ve been freed from the grip that the sin-nature, inherited from Satan, had on us. And God provided an antidote, in the New Testament, if we should sin, to immediately redeem us back into fellowship: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1Jn 1:9). So it’s a perfect redemption. We can always remain in fellowship with the Father. And that is how we can have boldness on the day of judgment. “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17). 

That means that we have Jesus’ DNA. “Just as He is, so are we in this world.”  We have all the Divine Nature Attributes of Jesus. We have all the fruits of the Spirit which are: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal 5:22-23). We also have “humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance for one another in love.” (Eph 4:2). We have the love of God which helps us to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things.” We have the agape kind of love dwelling in us, which is “Patient and kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1Cor 13)

All these virtues and attributes are in us, for, “As He is, so are we.” And all the promises of God are addressed to each one of us, and they are all YES, and “so be it done unto you”. So whatever we’re not (yet), we can become because we’ve got every promise helping us along, to become Christ.

Jesus was the perfect teacher, the perfect evangelist, the perfect prophet and the perfect apostle. There are the gifts that Paul refers to (Eph 4:11) that the Spirit has given to the church to grow us into mature Christians. And “as He is, so are we”… meaning that those gifts are in us to also grow into. The life of a Christian is one of looking unto Jesus as the perfect model to follow and emulate. All that He is, so can we be.

Same family, same DNA.