A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST

A. A new creation in Christ
When you believed in Jesus as your Savior, you have become a new creation, a new person, with a new nature in Christ.

Your old life, your old nature, has died with Christ.Your old life of sin, curse and death has gone. A new life of righteousness, blessings, and divine Holy Spirit-filled life has come.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION; the old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God.
(2 Corinthians 5:17)

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE.
(John 3:16)

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has LIFE.
(1 John 5:11,12)

1. Sin brings spiritual death
Sin separates a man from God. This separation from the life of God is spiritual death. In other words, sin brings spiritual death.

The wages of sin is DEATH.
(Romans 6:23)

The soul that sins shall DIE
Ezekiel 18:4)

Your iniquities have SEPARATED YOU from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you.
(Isaiah 59:2)

When a person is dead spiritually because of sin, he is separated from fellowship with God, and from the favor and blessings of God.

Instead, a man who is dead spiritually lives as follows:
(a) he follows the ways of the world;
(b) he follows the ways of the ruler of the kingdom of the air (that is, the devil or satan);
(c) he follows the desires and thoughts of his sinful nature (his flesh), gratifying its cravings;
(d) the devil is at work in his life;
(e) he will be an object of the wrath (the anger) of God at the Day of Judgement.

As for you, you were DEAD in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the WAYS OF THE WORLD and of the RULER OF THE KINGDOM OF THE AIR, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, GRATIFYING THE CRAVINGS of our sinful nature (our flesh) and following its desire and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature OBJECTS OF WRATH.
(Ephesians 2:1-3)

2. Jesus has come to die on the cross for your sins.
On the cross, Jesus Christ carried your sins on himself, and suffered the punishment due to your sins. He became our substitute in taking the punishment of your sins and my sins.

But he was PIERCED for your transgressions,

he was CRUSHED for your iniquities;
the PUNISHMENT that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his WOUNDS we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray;

each of us has turned to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(Isaiah 53:5-6)
For Christ DIED for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
(1 Peter 3:18)

3. Our sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus.
When you believed in Jesus as your Savior, God forgave your sins because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross. When we turn back to God, he washes our sins away by the blood of Jesus and remembers our sins no more.

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS.
(Acts 2:38)

In him we have redemption through his blood, the FORGIVENESS of sins.
(Ephesians 1:7)

Unto him that loved us, and WASHED US FROM OUR SINS in his own blood.
(Revelation 1:5)

4. New life through the Holy Spirit.
When you believed in Jesus, and have your sins washed away, God gives life to your spirit through his Holy Spirit. In other words, you have been "BORN AGAIN". You have been born of the Holy Spirit. You spirit was once dead because of sin is now made ALIVE AGAIN by the Holy Spirit. We now have a new spirit within us.

A man born of human parents has human life. A man born of the Holy Spirit has spiritual life, the life of God.

But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us ALIVE in Christ even when we were dead in transgression - it is by grace you have been saved.
(Ephesians 2:4-5)

Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying: 'You must be BORN AGAIN.'"
(John 3:5-7)

I will give you a new heart and put a NEW SPIRIT in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
(Ezekiel 36:26)

We were therefore BURIED WITH HIM through baptism into death.
(Romans 6:4)

Having been BURIED WITH HIM in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God.
(Colossians 2:12)

Therefore, whenever a person enters the water during water baptism when he becomes a believer, he is acknowledging before man and God, and before demons and angels, that his old life is dead and buried with Christ.

Baptism is thus very important because the bondages of the demonic world over your life are now broken. They have no more hold over you, because your old life of sin (body of sin) is now dead and buried.

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a NEW LIFE. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be UNITED WITH HIM IN HIS RESURRECTION.
(Romans 6:4-5)

Having been buried with him in baptism and RAISED WITH HIM through your faith in the power of God.
(Colossians 2:12)

When you come out of the water baptism, you are acknowledging to the spirit world, to God and angels and demons, and to the church that you now have the resurrection life of Jesus. This is because in water baptism, you are affirming and acknowledging that you are buried and raised with jesus.

And God raised us up with Christ and SEATED US WITH HIM in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:6)

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and SEATED HIM AT HIS RIGHT HAND in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the age to come
(Ephesians 2:19-21)

1. You become a child of God
God the Father becomes your father, and you receive the right to be called a son of God.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become CHILDREN OF GOD.
(John 1:12)

Because we are his children, God will look after us, teach us, lead us, change us, give us every good thing that we need, and prepare a wonderful life of ministry and glory for us.

<2>2. God the Son, Jesus Christ, becomes our Lord and friend.
We become disciples of Jesus when we believe in him. He becomes the Lord of our lives. He also calls us his friends.

You call me 'Teacher' and 'LORD,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.
(John 13:13)

You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you FRIENDS, for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.
(John 15:14-15)

3. The Holy Spirit becomes your Counselor, Comforter or Helper.
When you believe in Jesus and are baptised, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, will come and live in you forever. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will cause the RESURRECTION LIFE of Jesus (the LOVE and POWER of Jesus to flow through your life everyday if you allow him.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor (Comforter, Helper) to be with you forever - the SPIRIT of truth.

4. It is a relationship of love with God.
Our relationship with God is motivated by love and is to be based on love.