THE OLD MAN IS DEAD, LET THE NEW MAN LIVE
(excerpt from the book GREATER GLORY)
By Barbara A. Gould
“Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creation altogether); the old [previous, moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold the fresh and new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, AMP).
If God has completed the work of recreating us,
our responsibility is to choose to walk in what HE
has already done; otherwise the work of the cross
would be in vain.
So many times we try to change ourselves. We strive, we criticize, we judge and even hate ourselves instead of entrusting ourselves to God’s Word and His Spirit. HE will change us.
As the Holy Spirit reminds us in Ephesians 2:10 (AMP):
“For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]”
All the Father asks us to do is to worship Him, confess our weaknesses and submit to Him (when we obey His Word, we are submitting to Him). HE will give us the grace — the ability and strength to be what He wants us to be.
Romans 6:2 (AMP) is very clear in declaring the believers’ death to sin. Paul, by the Holy Spirit asks, “… how can we who died to sin live in it any longer?” When we received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and were baptized, we professed to the world that we were following Christ in His death and in His resurrection. In other words, the old man with his old nature and habits was dead and buried and we had chosen to live and walk in the newness of life “…so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in the newness of life.” (Romans 6:4 AMP)
