WEEK 8
NEW LIFE IN CHRIST (2)
i. Characteristics of the new life (Galatians 5:22-24)
New life is the life that we life now when we confess and believe in the gospel. It is a life lived in accordance to the teaching of Jesus Christ. It is a life that recognizes the God-factor and purpose for our life.
In Galatians 5:22 – 24, Paul when writing to the Galatians stated that New life is characterized by the following, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
ii. Need to Stick to the New Life (Romans 6:12 – 19)
While writing to the Romans, Paul states the reason why we should be committed or stick to the new life. He warned in Romans 6:12-19 that we should “not let sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
He says that sin makes us to obey the passions of the body which is condemn for death
Sin is an instrument of wickedness and also the reward of wickedness is death
God has bought us over from death to life
Sin keeps us under the law
New life puts us under grace
New life makes us instruments of righteousness to God.
Slaves of Righteousness
He further states in Romans 6:15 – 19, that “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.”
This implies that we are slaves to whosoever we yield to or obey. One will become slave to sin which leads to death if you obey the passions of the body against the will of God, which is sin and also we become slaves to righteousness in God which leads to life everlasting. To this end, we need to stick to the New Life and discard the Old Life.
Unprecedented 