Gospel Reflections #338: The New Life

Galatians 2:20 “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christ lives in me. I live now in the flesh because of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

God declared war against Satan to restore us from our sin-influenced state, and it was fulfilled through Jesus.

We have received new life through faith in Jesus.

That new life is not a life to be spent merely following or adhering to a particular doctrine.

Rather, the new life is that through the atonement of the cross of Jesus, we renounce the old self that is in us and receive the new self that Jesus gives us.

Just because we have received new life does not mean that we are prepared for a completely different and rosy path of life.

Even if we believe in Jesus and receive new life, the new life is still newborn, and the old self is the strong one that has made us who we are until now, so unless we keep making the choice to abandon the old self, the new life will be swallowed up by the old self.

If we truly believe in the "fulfillment of God's declaration of war" through the cross of Jesus, we should be able to believe that Christ is living in me in m new life. And as we make the choice to give up our old seat in the middle of our hearts to the new life, Jesus, in our daily lives, Jesus will live and grow in us.

It may mean abandoning our ways, or giving up something we have always wanted to do.

But our God is working for our best. Our best is not what we think it is, but our unity with God.

The more we learn about who God is and who we humans are in our daily communion with Him, the more we realize that His promises and guidance are perfect and that we humans who receive them are imperfect, inadequate, and unstable.

This is how we experience that we do not live as we are, but are kept alive and guided by Jesus.

This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San who lives in Hiroshima, Japan. She is a devoted student of the Bible who passionately embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on the Gospels as a way to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through the Christ-centered approach of Biblical Reflections. We're sharing her message here so that you too can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel