New Beginnings

These first two weeks of January are always celebrated for new beginnings. Unfortunately, most resolutions are focused around making life healthier, more enjoyable, and better for ourselves and our family. As a follower of Christ Jesus, we already have a permanent new life through the blood of the cross. Let's accept it as such and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and hearts through study of His Word this year!

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."
(Colossians 3:1-4)

At the point of salvation, the believer’s life is hidden with Christ—bathed in the blood of the Lamb. We are now secure in His sovereign hand! We are immediately hidden from the clutches of death, from the eternal hold it has on all those who reject Christ. Those who are newly identified with “Christ in God” share a common fellowship with the Father and Son. 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us, “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” And we read in 2 Peter 1:4 that believers are “partakers of the divine nature.” This oneness with Christ cannot be taken away by any man or any spiritual force. Our adoption by God the Father is final and unchangeable; “…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:4-5). Jesus boldly states in John 10:28, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

"...and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."
(Colossians 3:10)

The Colossian believers (like us) have a new identity in Christ! Romans 6:6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” They have already become the new man, the new self. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Paul urges the Colossians to take hold of the new identity they have the through the death and resurrection of Jesus. They are already indwelt with the promised Holy Spirit, but now they must understand the gravity of it and begin living in the knowledge of that.

A holy life flows directly from a mature knowledge of Jesus. We are told in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind...” There is no growth in the Christian life without increased knowledge. Our increasing knowledge of God and His character is what grows us into in deeper fellowship with our heavenly Father. “And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24). Our source of knowledge is scripture! The new self grows by an immersion in the Word of God, how can we so easily neglect it? God is glorified as we are made more into the image of Christ!

John