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New Life in Christ
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By Lauren Kostenberger
Spring is the season of new life. Everywhere you look, you see something new springing up – a flower, a tree, a baby animal…all these things tend to come in the spring. When we think of spring we think of budding flowers, new green leaves and the sun coming out after a long winter of cloudy skies.
But have you ever thought of the similarities between the new life that appears in the spring and our new life in Christ? I think God created the season of spring to show us how our life in Christ should look.
“…we died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:2-4
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
In these verses, we see how our old sin nature died when we accepted Christ. Just as he died physically, our sin nature died spiritually when we trusted him to take away our sins. And in the same way that he rose again, appearing in bodily form to more than 500 people, we should rise in the newness of life Christ has given us.
Paul tells us in Romans 6:11 that we should “count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Just as a seed is planted in the earth and dies so that a new plant can grow, just as a caterpillar crawls into its cocoon and dies to its old self so that it can emerge a beautiful butterfly, so we are supposed to die to ourselves and emerge glorious in our new life. God sees us in Christ now, and in his eyes we are perfect. Are you living in a way that shouts out to everyone the amazing new life you have in Christ?
Acts 5:20 relates how an angel of the Lord told the apostles, “Go, stand in the temple courts, and tell the people the full message of this new life.” As Christians, the whole reason we are here on this earth is to tell people about “this new life” we have in Christ. Are you telling your friends and family about the new life you have in Christ?
This spring, as you see the flowers blooming and the miracle of new life around you, think about the new life you have in Christ, and live it out!
Girlz 4 Christ 