Jesus died to pay for your sins, but that's just the beginning!
2 Corinthians 5:15-17 (NIV)
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ...
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 24: The Sanctification of Sinners
We believe that this true faith,
produced in man by the hearing of God’s Word
and by the work of the Holy Spirit,
regenerates him and makes him a “new man,”
causing him to live the “new life”
and freeing him from the slavery of sin.
Therefore,
far from making people cold
toward living in a pious and holy way,
this justifying faith,
quite to the contrary,
so works within them that
apart from it
they will never do a thing out of love for God
but only out of love for themselves
and fear of being condemned.
So then, it is impossible
for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being,
seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith
but of what Scripture calls
“faith working through love,”
which leads a man to do by himself
the works that God has commanded
in his Word.
Summary
We often say that Jesus died to pay for our sins, which of course is true - it's the core tenant of Christianity! But Jesus didn't die to just pay for your sins. He died "that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them" (v15). In other words, Jesus died to change both who you're living for and how you live.
This change brought about by Jesus' death extends to every aspect of life. From now on, we read here, you must "regard no one from a worldly point of view" (v16 - literally translated it says you must not think of anything the way that sarx wants you to think). Instead of forming your opinions according to the world's ever changing philosophies, you evaluate all things in the light of Christ, who is the unchanging way, truth and life.
Believing in Jesus changes your very essence. Along with everyone else, you were born in Adam, and you reflected this sinful condition in everything you thought, said and did. But now you are "a new creation," and your essence has shifted to being in Christ. As such, your life must now reflect Christ in every way.
Paul frames this as an indicative: "the old has gone, and the new is here!" (v17), but this truth comes with imperatival force (it compels you to act). Your calling in life is to get rid of the old (sarx), and replace it with the new (Christ).
Dig Deeper
The idea that Christ bought you with His blood, so that now you "are not your own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to your faithful Savior..." is just as much a central doctrine of Christianity as is substitutionary atonement (the idea that Christ substituted Himself for you). Yet it often too easily gets set aside or forgotten about.
The idea that Jesus paid for people's sin is attractive, but the idea that since Jesus paid for people they now belong in every way to Him clashes with our deeply embedded desire for independence. A disciplined Christian life is about much more than just stamping out a few random sins here and there; it involves a total realignment of every thought, word and deed (which is why alignment is a key part of our daily prayer).
We call this lifelong process sanctification, a word which literally means to make holy. Remember, holiness is more than just sinlessness, it means separated. Your goal in life is to separate yourself more and more from your old sinful nature (sarx) and the fallen world you temporarily inhabit.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ (v18)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as a new creation, you will not regard anything from sarx's point of view;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 19
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