New Life in Christ

When I came to Jesus, I came desperate. I had tried all the things the world promised would fulfill me to no avail. I had become one of the biggest sinners that I knew. I had done everything I could to obtain the attention I thought I needed to make me important in life, but these things only made me more notorious as a sinner, and truly, no one cared.

I had known Jesus as a child, led by my mother's push into His arms, which I am still grateful for today. But this time, I was coming to Him. I had heard His call and had felt His tug upon my heart. To no credit of my own, desperate times helped me to take the first step. As I lay there in the bed with my husband fast asleep, our marriage and our world falling apart, I fell into the arms of the one who truly loved me unconditionally. He soothed my soul. I went to bed a different person that night. It wasn't long before my husband found himself in those same loving arms. That embrace seems to end all hurt and calm every fear.

My conversion was so real to me that not only did I know Jesus in a way I had not known Him before, but now I knew myself in a way I had never known me before! Little did I know at the time what a great revelation this new reality was and how it would grow. It has become one of the pillars of my life.

Not long after I was born again, I began to see myself in such a different way. I knew that I was no longer the same person. I still had some of the same personality traits and some of the same mannerisms, but I was indeed different. I was no longer the same on the inside. I wanted to do everything I could to please my Maker, and I loved people. Wow! What had happened to me? I don't care what anyone says, but I refuse to believe that the prayer of salvation is just a simple prayer or that Christianity is simply a one time experience that soon wears off and grows stale! No! It is a new life, the beginning of a new existence. What I was only just beginning to know and am now more intimately acquainted with is the revelation that has propelled my Christian walk to what it is today.

The first thing that I learned is so basic, yet so many Christians seem to skip right over it. I knew without a shadow of doubt that I was no longer a sinner. There is a common cliche that says, "We are all just sinners saved by grace." This is one of the deadliest none-truths circulating through the Body of Christ today! If we don't come to the simple realization that we are no longer simply 'sinners saved by grace' we will miss out on the reality of what Christ purchased for us on that cross! If we are indeed 'saved by grace', then we are no longer rotten sinners! Jesus died a sinner's death to make us righteous. He took our place. Now God sees us as righteous, not sinners. If we are righteous in God's sight, then who are we to say or believe otherwise?

I believed this truth to such an extent that I could not understand why people, including my husband, was angry with me for things that I did not do. Indeed the 'old' me had done many evils against many people, but I had "wronged no man" as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7:2. I would even say to those who I had wronged, "I didn't do that to you. That was the old me. I have only ever loved and served you. You can't punish me for things I didn't do. I am innocent! The old me is dead, for I have been crucified with Christ. It is the new me that lives. I live, yet not I, but it is Christ who is alive in me, and the life that I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me! Don't you see that old things are gone and I'm new?" (See 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 2:20.)

Ha! Ha! H! Of course, that doesn't go over so well, at first, with people who have known you so well 'after the flesh', but eventually they catch on. I knew that I was a new creation, and I was not going to let anyone drag me back into that old life and identity. This is the foundation for our new beginning in Christ Jesus. I wasn't aware of it then but this reality has had a great effect on who I am today.

The quicker you began to accept this truth, the quicker your life will begin to change. Don't let anyone convince you that you are a 'low-down, dirty sinner'. No! You are a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, He is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5 goes on to say that not only are 'all things new', but verse 18 says, "And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation..." You are no longer a sinner if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You are the righteousness of God in Christ! (See 2 Corinthians 5:21.)

In my moment of desperation, the Holy Spirit took me by the hand and brought me back into the arms of my loving savior, Jesus Christ, and the realization of God's life in me has truly made all the difference!

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (emphasis added)