“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV). To be in Christ doesn’t mean we are contained in him like being inside a box, it means we are like a branch or a limb of a tree that extends into the trunk or larger limb as its source of life and support. As a creation we are brought into existence; According to his great mercy, God the Father has caused us to be born again (1 Peter 1:3), grafting us into Christ. As a branch being grafted into, we abide in Christ and are spiritually alive, able to produce much fruit, for apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5). In Ephesians 2:10, we are described as his “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (ESV). The old sinful way of living for ourselves is now replaced with the ability and desire to live for God doing kingdom work. Our new life style is to be a reflection of our new family we were adopted into and while living here on earth we live as representatives of our heavenly Father, not of the father of evil we were once a part of.
Prayer
Father, as a new creation we should have a lifestyle that is different enough from the world that they would refer to us as aliens and strangers. Our lifestyle should reflect the heavenly family we are a part of, but instead we have become like those of the world by adopting their ways of living; we have become cultural Christians. Maybe it is time for some persecution to turn us back to the Lord and his word. Father, have mercy on us and encourage us to turn back and walk in a manner worthy of our new creation in Christ.
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