If you have been reborn in Christ you are a new creation.

You are not just the same old person now with a little Jesus added. You are not someone who has “gotten religion” or taken up a new hobby.

You are a work of God Himself raised up to walk in newness of life.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.

Whatever person you were before Jesus passes away.  A brand new person is born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God writes John.  A new man, a new creation made by God through the blood of Jesus is the result.

A child of God is born through His work.

If anyone is telling you that you are still the same person you were they are liars.  They are denying the truth of the Bible.  They are trying to take away from what the Lord has already done.  They are trying to rob Him of His victory.

It may be comfortable to wallow in the past.  You may even fall back into sin, but you are no longer defined by it.  A sinner is no longer who you are in Jesus.  Christians are defined only by Him and the Cross.

No matter if you were an adulterer, addict, criminal or habitual sinner, the Bible is clear that person from the past is dead and gone for all eternity.

As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

That is one rough group that Paul describes.  That is past tense though, not what they are now.  “And such WERE some of you.”  They are no longer those things.   The blood of Jesus washed those old men and women away.  They are replaced with ones who are justified, found innocent and are being changed into the image of Jesus.  These are the clear assurances of Jesus.

You can know these promises of newness and righteousness are true by looking to the source of our salvation, Jesus.  It is such an important point that God in His Word links the Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection with your death, burial, and rebirth in Christ.

If you believe one is true then you have to believe the other is true.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection

Romans 6:4-5

Do you believe in Jesus’s death on the Cross, burial, and resurrection from the Dead?

Great, now look at what Paul is saying in these verses. Just like Jesus died, was buried and resurrected into new life, so did you in Jesus.  It is not two separate concepts.  You have been joined with Him in death and reborn with Him into newness of life..not by your work, not by your parents work but by the work of God.

If you trust the work of God was done with Jesus, you must trust the work of God done in you. 

Why?  Because God loves you.

God loves you so much.  He so wants you to walk in the awesome, amazing, refreshing abundance of new life in Jesus that He links the culmination of the plan of redemption of all mankind with your individual rebirth in Christ.

If Jesus was resurrected to new life so are you.  The same power that raised Jesus raised you.

Does God ever make a mistake? Does God ever do anything halfway?

Of course not, His making us into a new creation is perfect and complete. You can always trust in His work, even when you doubt your own.  You are transformed from a life as a slave to sin and death in darkness into a life in the light freed from sin. It is Jesus’ greatest miracle and it happens thousands of times every day.

Are you missing out on this newness of life?  Are you living as a new creation?  Do you understand that you are no longer defined by what came before Jesus, just by God’s great work?

Life in Jesus is never about what you used to be.  You are not who you were.

If you are living in the past you are denying the work of God in you.  Grab onto the promise God makes in His Word and choose to accept the awesome work of God that is you this very day.

Choose this day who you believe,.  As for me and my household, with trust in Jesus and His promises.

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Calvary Catonsville

A Calvary Chapel in Maryland

5695 Main Street

Elkridge, MD 210675

(443)840-7475

Pastor Tom Neary