NEW LIFE
HOW CAN WE HAVE NEW LIFE NOW?
BIBLE READING: Matthew 1:18-25
KEY BIBLE VERSE: She will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
THE HOPE OF NEW LIFE BEGINS WITH JESUS.
JESUS MEANS “THE LORD SAVES.” JESUS CAME TO EARTH TO SAVE US BECAUSE WE CAN’T SAVE OURSELVES FROM SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. NO MATTER HOW GOOD WE ARE, WE CAN’T ELIMINATE THE SINFUL NATURE PRESENT IN ALL OF US. ONLY JESUS CAN DO THAT. JESUS DIDN’T COME TO HELP PEOPLE SAVE THEMSELVES; HE CAME TO BE THEIR SAVIOR FROM THE POWER AND PENALTY OF SIN. THANK CHRIST FOR HIS DEATH ON THE CROSS FOR YOUR SIN, AND THEN ASK HIM TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE. YOUR NEW LIFE BEGINS AT THAT MOMENT.
BIBLE READING: Romans 6:1-14
KEY BIBLE VERSE: Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. (Romans 6:5)
THE HOPE OF NEW LIFE IS GUARANTEED BY JESUS’ RESURRECTION.
We can enjoy our new life in Christ because we are united with him in his death and resurrection. Our evil desires, our bondage to sin, and our love of sin died with him. Now, united by faith with him in his resurrection life, we have unbroken fellowship with God and freedom from sin’s hold on us. (For more on the difference between our new life in Christ and our old sinful nature, read Ephesians 4:21-24 and Colossians 3:3-15.)
BIBLE READING: Colossians 2:6-23
KEY BIBLE VERSE: You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)
THE HOPE OF NEW LIFE IS FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE TO SIN.
Before we believed in Christ, our nature was evil. We disobeyed, rebelled, and ignored God (even at our best, we did not love him with all our heart, soul, and mind). The Christian, however, has a new nature. God has crucified the old, rebellious nature (Romans 6:6) and replaced it with a new, loving nature (3:9-10). The penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross. God has declared us not guilty, and we need no longer live under sin’s power. God does not take us out of the world or make us robots-we will still feel like sinning, and sometimes we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved, we were slaves to our sinful nature; but now we are free to live for Christ (see Galatians 2:20).