*Text: 2 Cor. 5: 17*
*This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT)
One of the uniqueness of the Christian faith is that it is a faith that demands death as a necessary entry qualification. All those who desire to come into the Christian faith must die to sin, must die to self, must die to the flesh and must die to the old life before they can be qualified to come into the faith, failure to do so makes them a poor imitation of a true Christian. The implication of this is that the life of a Christian is not a continuation of his old life but the start of an entirely new life that should have no trace of the old.
The Old life is characterized by various sinful practices, and negatives traits such as malice, envy, pride, greed, lustful tendencies, sinful addictions and so on. It is a life that is the direct opposite of a holy life which is the demand of a Holy God. It is totally impossible to offer any meaningful service to God with our old life, such a service cannot be acceptable to God no matter the effort we put into it. And that is the unfortunate situation that many find themselves today. They are serving God but they are serving Him in their old life. They hold position in the church, they are in the church choir, they are among the stewards, they are lay ministers, they are in one church committee or another, but outside the church they still patronize drinking joints, they are still involved in extra marital affairs, they are very dishonest in the way they conduct their business. In short they are living a double life, they are the direct opposite of who they claim to be in the church, such people are only wasting their time serving in the church because their service is not recognized by God. In fact they are a problem to the church because they give the church a bad name outside amongst unbelievers and this is a major reason why God is angry with them.
The bibles assures us that we can only deceive men we cannot deceive God, God knows those who are is (2 Tim. 2: 19-21) and they are those who have jettisoned their old life and embraced the new life in Christ. They are the ones that God is committed to blessing, they are the ones that can expect God to answer whenever they call on Him.
Many are very attracted to their old life and are unwilling to give it up, this reluctance to give up the old life is the reason why many have refused to be genuinely saved, choosing rather to combine the old with the new, Jesus however explained that this is impossible and any attempt to do this will have disastrous consequences (Luke 5: 36-38), though He also acknowledged the fact that many are unwilling to drop their old life for the new because they believe that the old is better (Luke 5: 39), but they have no choice but to drop their old life if they desire to be on the right side of God.
Contrary to the thinking of many, the new life actually is far better than the old, the old life ultimately leads to hell, while the new life leads to eternal life with God in heaven. Think about it, which will you prefer? I pray that God will grant you grace to make the right choice. Shalom.
Prayer Points
1. Father thank you for the privilege to drop my old life and to receive a new life through faith in Christ Jesus.
2. Father please forgive me for those times when I served in your vineyard in my old life thereby bringing shame and reproach to your name
3. Father by your power let every traits or addictions of the old life die totally in my life in Jesus name
4. Father as someone who by your grace is dead to the old life, may I never be alive to it ever again in Jesus name
5. Father between the old life and the new life I have made my choice to accept and to live the new life, let every problem associated with the old life die in my life in Jesus name.
