New Life in Christ   (a)  Meaning of Old Life As Living in Sin       (b)  Characteristics of Old Life (Gal. 5:19-21, Col. 3:5-7) (c) Need for Change (Rom.6: 1-4)       

Back to: CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES SS1

 

Welcome to class! 

In today’s class, we will be talking about the new life in Christ. Enjoy the class!

New Life in Christ

At creation, man was an epitome of God’s glory and could relate with God directly. However, it was not long before man fell from this exalted state. Man was banished out of the garden and sin became the order of the day. Cain killed his brother Abel and iniquity was very prevalent on Earth.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5 Again in Jeremiah, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

The old life is the life of the flesh, it can also be referred to as the life of the Falling Man.

 

Characteristics of the old life (Gal. 5:19-21, Col. 3:5-7)

There’s a need for a change from this old life. Jesus Christ came in the body to save us from this old life. Salvation is a deliverance from the old life. Paul in his epistle to the Romans and Colossians made it clear that the moment an individual comes to receive the lordship of Jesus, he’s expected to drop his old nature and wear the New nature. Christians are expected to live a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

Paul wrote to the Galatian church that, if they let the Spirit lead them, they are not under the law.

The characteristics of the old man include committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things, worshipping false gods, taking part in witchcraft, hating people, causing trouble, being jealous, angry or selfish, causing people to argue and divide into separate groups, being filled with envy, getting drunk, having wild parties, etc. He warned that the people who do these things will not have a part in God’s kingdom.

Need for Change (Rom.6: 1-4)

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit and must not feel proud and boast about ourselves. We must not cause trouble for each other or be jealous of each other.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians encouraged them to have faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ there for the expected to seek things above. This implies that they should seek heavenly things by putting away mundane or earthly things. He emphasized to them that these things are old nature which must be put off and then putting on the new nature which is renewed in the knowledge and image of God they must, therefore, be no discrimination among them.

Evaluation

List and explain five characteristics of the old man which can be manifested by a Christan.

Assignment

What is Paul’s teaching on New Life in Christ in what two ways can Christian manifest this? (SSCE August 1991).

 

In our next class, we will be talking more about New Life in Christ.  We hope you enjoyed the class.

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