When I returned to my 30th high school reunion, I had six people ask the same basic question, “What happened in your senior year to make you so different from what you were before?” To be absolutely clear, I fully realize I still struggle with the old man every day. I am not as consistent as I want to be and have miles to go to become the man God wants me to be. But by the glory of God, when I was saved as a senior in high school, Christ radically changed my life and gave me a desire to live for Him.
When the Apostle Paul described how a believer should live after salvation, he said, “…we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). We don’t have to wonder what he means by this statement, because he tells us in the remainder of the chapter. Newness of life means that “…henceforth we should not serve sin” (vs. 6). Every lost soul inherently is under the bond- age of sin. We often serve sin by practicing things we know are wrong and foolish, because we lack the power from within to live otherwise. Newness of life means one purposes to live “unto God” (vs. 10). That doesn’t mean living in sinless perfection, but it does mean honestly purposing to live for Christ and seeking to rise above constant sinful practices. Newness of life means one must “…reckon [or count] ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin…” (vs. 11). Consciously, we must consider ourselves dead to living in old sinful ways and dead to the power of sin to control us. Newness of life means considering ourselves “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (vs. 11). We are to view ourselves as a new creation in Christ with life, responsiveness, and desire to live unto Christ rather than self. Newness of life means seeking not to “…yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the [spiritually] dead” (vs. 13). Believers should realize we are all servants either to sin or to the Lord (vss. 16-18). Believers living transformed lives purpose to yield their bodies to Christ and to the working of the Holy Spirit within as He leads us to live in godliness.
Are you living in newness of life? If others around you can’t see a trans- formed life, make it a daily matter of prayer.