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Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Living Your New Life in Christ


 

 

“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:10-11, NKJV).

 

 

Jesus Christ died for our sins once and for all time. His perfect work was finished. Our sinful nature was crucified with Christ the moment we asked Him into our hearts and confessed Him as Lord of our life. We were reborn in our spirit by His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:17, John 3:6). Our sins were forever forgiven by God. 

 

If our sins are forgiven, why do many believers feel condemned when living for Christ? It is not Jesus who condemns you. It is the evil one. Christ came into the world not to condemn you but to save you (John 3:17). 

 

Struggling to keep the law without knowing who you are in Christ—without the righteousness of Christ empowering you—will condemn you.

 

“For when I tried to keep the law,” Paul wrote, “it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirement—so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:19, NLT).

 

You live for God by faith in Christ's finished work of salvation and not by meeting the requirements of the law. You die to the dictates of the law so you might live for God. When you quit struggling to meet the requirements of the law, you quit trying to prove that you are right with God. You know and believe that Christ has made you right and new in your born-again spirit. And you keep His commandments with the righteousness Christ has given you. 

 

You have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. The life you now live, you live by faith in Jesus, who loved you and gave himself for you (Galatians 2:20). You no longer live by the dictates of the law. You live by His grace (Romans 6:14).

 

You can’t earn God’s grace or prove yourself to Him. Christ already has proved you worthy to God. Quit living in fear that He will leave you or forsake you.

 

“For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV). 

 

God never leaves you or forsakes you. He never removes His grace from your life. When you choose not to walk in the righteousness He has given you, you are the one who pulls away from Him. 

 

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13, NKJV).

 

My sister and brother in Christ, He will never leave you. After you heard and believed in Christ, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. You are forever forgiven by the grace of Jesus. 

 

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV).

 

Christ took our sins. Our sinful nature was crucified with Christ, and we were reborn by His Spirit into His righteousness. Christ has judged us holy and presented us without fault to the Father (Ephesians 1:4). We live what we believe. If we believe that Christ has made us righteous, then His righteousness will prevail in our lives. If we believe that there is something more that we need to do to earn His righteousness, then we will live our lives always struggling to meet requirements only the righteousness of Christ could meet. And Christ did meet those requirements once and for all time and set us free from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13).

 

With faith, we please God. When we believe that His righteousness is ours and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6), we live by faith and not by what the law dictates. We know our flesh may fail at times, but in Christ, we are forgiven, accepted, and loved.

 

“Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:20-23).

 

Your flesh cannot defeat sin. Only Christ in you, the hope of glory, defeated sin. And now you live that truth by faith. When you live to keep the law, you fall from grace—not back into sin (Galatians 5:4). When you live by faith in the Son of God who died for you, you live by the righteousness Christ has given you.

 

Learn and understand and believe who you are in Christ. Trust in the finished work of Christ in your life. Believe Christ has crucified your old sinful nature and given you His righteousness. He is your new life. Live by faith in who are you in Christ, and you will defeat the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit within you. 

 

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV).

 

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/12/living-your-new-life-in-christ.html

 

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