His Resurrection: A Call To Walk In Newness Of Life

HIS RESURRECTION: A CALL TO WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE

Study Text: Ephesians 4:17-24, 2 Corinthians 5: 17

Introduction:

- When we were saved, we became spiritually identified with Christ in His death, His burial and His resurrection. It was then that we died to our old life of sin, and we were spiritually resurrected to the new life we now have in Christ.

- This must cause us now to walk in newness of life, to actually live out in our daily living, the results of our salvation from sin.

- Walking in the newness of life in this generation and end-time is possible and a reality because Jesus Christ made adequate provision for us to live in that realm.

- Jesus Christ did not only redeem us from our sins but also gave us access to the reality of living a new life round the clock. Because we have been given this advantage, and made the partaker of redemptive gifts from God, we are to walk in a manner that is different from the world around us.

- Holiness is the pathway to walking and living in the newness of life .God is committed to beautifying the church with honour and glory, but it is demanded that the church first clean itself from every sin that easily besets it. Hebrews 12: 1-2.

- God is also willing to visit the church with the Spirit of holiness, which enables everyone to walk and live in the newness of life. Righteousness brings honour but sin brings shame and reproach.

- Dearly beloved, we are also being transformed by the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead. But this transformation does not come passively. We are actively involved in the whole process of change.

- We are responsible to live out all that the resurrection of Christ has accomplished for us. Only then do we experience the power of the resurrection working in us and changing us from within. We are going to consider how we should live our lives, in view of the fact that Jesus Christ is resurrected from the grave.

- We are called to walk in newness of life. Paul issues some very specific challenges for all those who are saved. These challenges teach us how we are to walk, and how we are to be different from those who have not been saved.

- We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:

1. The Distinction of the Saints

2. The Direction for the Saints

3. The Decision of the Saints

1. The Distinction of the Saints

- Our life after salvation should be new, different and superior in quality to our former life. It should be free from all the sinful and corrupt habits of the former life.

- It lives for heavenly things and not for earthly things any more. This is what we mean by the Resurrected life. We who have been saved, are no longer like we were. We are “new creatures” in Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 5:17.

- As a result of the “new birth,” we are not what we used to be. And we can no longer live like we used to live. We have been changed. Thus, we are different from the world around us.

- Paul’s challenge here is to mark the differences between the children of God and the children of the devil. We are to mark those distinctions between the saved and the lost, and we are to be different. These includes:

i. The lost live empty lives because their minds are corrupted by the inborn sin that dwells within them. Thus, every thought is corrupted by evil.

ii. The lost mind invents ways to serve the flesh, or the selfish desires of the mind. The lost mind invents false gods, false religions, and foolish philosophies that are designed to showcase man’s brilliance. Yet, the inventions of the lost mind are empty of anything helpful, and they ultimately damning to the soul of man. Proverb. 16:25.

iii. Because of the stubbornness of their hearts, they are separated from the life that could be theirs in Jesus Christ, and they remain trapped in the darkness and depravity of their condition. Whether we like it or not, the lost are “dead in trespasses and sins,” Eph. 2:1.

iv. The lost sinner commits his life to evil, and as he does, he loses his sensitivity toward sin. This leads them to ever deepening levels of wickedness. They yield their lives to “lasciviousness.” It is a life given over to open sin.

v. The lost all around us work themselves to death in the pursuit of their pleasure; never realizing that their wickedness, and corruption is doing nothing but increasing their guilt in the eyes of a holy God.