are you searching for answers?

So many people are looking for something different. 

 

There has to be more to life than this. 

 

Are you looking for a new life?

 

Do this internet search – “Steps to a new life.”  Here are the top answers – 9 steps…, 10 steps…, 5 steps…, 4 steps…, 12 steps…

 

It seems that everyone has the answer, but if that were true, why are the answers different? 

 

The most popular section in a book store is usually the self-help section.  There are always new books for sale that say they can help you be a better person, or have more success.

 

The problem is this – if they worked, why are there newer books being written with newer methods?  The truth is, they don’t work.  We already know this.  Hopelessness is more common and happiness is less common.  People are turning to alcohol or drugs or virtual reality to escape their real life or even worse, they choose suicide.  You probably know someone who has tried or sadly committed suicide.

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But here is the real answer!  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore in any man be in Christ, he is a new person; old things are passed away, all things are new.”

 

Look closely at this sentence again.  What makes someone a new person?  What makes the old things pass and everything new?  This happens If someone is in Christ.  So, the answer to a new life is to be in Christ; but what does that mean?

 

Many people think that they are born in Christ, but that does not make any sense.  If that were true, we should all have new life already and it is clear that everyone does not.  Furthermore, there are billions of people in the world and most of them do not recognize Christ in their religions, so how can someone be born in Christ?

 

What about following a list of things to do like the 10 commandments?  Well, that doesn’t work either because we are always breaking them; we can’t stop lying, cheating, stealing and lusting.  Many will say, but my church tells me what I should do to be in Christ and I did that – I was baptized, I took communion, I went to catechism class, so I am probably in Christ.

 

There are a couple of problems with a list of things to do; one is that every church has a different list.  Which one is correct?  How do we know?  You may point to the Bible, but the strange thing about that is there are no lists in the Bible that talk about giving anyone a new life.  That is because of the second problem; it would depend on us.  Here the Bible does have something to say.  Listen to Ephesians 2:8,9  “For by grace are you saved (rescued, given new life) through faith and it’s not because of you: it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no man can boast.”

 

So, the churches that give us a list of things to do; that tell us what to do to be in Christ are simply wrong, as you see in this verse.  It is not because of our list or works; not of ourselves.  No one will be rescued; will have their life changed by working or performing a list based on what a church says. 

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Your next question may be – How can we be in Christ then? The Bible is clear.  God wants us to have a new life; a real life, and He makes it very easy to understand because He wants us to know.  Remember reading above in Ephesians that our rescue is “the gift of God.”  That’s what He says in Romans 6:23 also, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

 

The gift, as you see, is the new life; eternal life, but it can only come by, and through Jesus Christ – in other words, to be in Christ.  You see the Bible does have the answers and it all makes sense.

 

Look at that verse again.  No one works for a gift, right?  Of course not; but a gift must be received before it belongs to me – before it is mine personally.  A gift can be accepted, but it can also be rejected.  It is never forced on anyone.

 

But the verse also talks about sin and death.  Why?  There is a cost of sin and the cost is death.  That is what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross.  Sin brings death; it causes it.  Jesus died for us.  Listen to Romans 5:8, “But God proved His love to us, in that even though we were sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

We were the sinners that Jesus had to die for.  It was the proof of God’s love for us that Jesus, God’s Son Himself, who never sinned, took our place – dying for us.  Thankfully, He did not stay dead.  After three days, He arose from the dead, defeating it, so that anyone who is in Him (in Christ) can have a new life.

 

But wait, someone might say, I am not really a sinner.  That’s interesting.  We already talked about not being able to keep the 10 commandments.  We lie.  Not really big ones and not very many, but still it has happened.  We steal.  Again, nothing really big, but it has most likely happened.  We lust.  We envy.  This is not a surprise to God.  He already knows.  Look at Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the perfection of God.”

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There is really no way to escape from the word “all” in this verse.  We are all guilty.  But this guilt has a cost.  Who had to die because of this sin?  God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, who He loved dearly.  But God also saw how helpless we are and He proved His love for us by sending Jesus to die for us.  We are guilty.  Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so we would not have to.  That is real love and that should really get our attention. It should drive me to agree with God about my sin and its consequences.

 

There is someone who loves us so much that He was willing to die for us.  If this really happened, and history tells us that it did, then it should affect me in some real way.  I am loved.  I have a purpose.  I matter to God.  He wants to give me new life; real life.

 

How do we get that life?  We must understand that we are sinners.  We understand that sin has a penalty (wages) – and it is death.

 

Jesus died for my sins.  Jesus, God’s Son, loved us so much He was willing to die; to become our payment for sin; to be guilty in our place.  He died but did not stay dead.  He overcame death and rose from the grave.

 

I must receive (accept) this gift (His payment) of Jesus’ death for my sins.  Remember the gift is for everyone, but we may either accept it or reject it.  It is accepted by faith and then we will be found in Christ, thus receiving new life that 2 Corinthians 5:17 is talking about.  It really is that simple.  Do you want a new life?  You can have it but know that it can only come through Jesus Christ.

 

We at New Life Community are not perfect.  We are not better than anyone else.  But we have found this new life and would love to help you find it too.  Our motto, which is based on what we find in the Bible, is – Real Answers, Real Hope, Real Life.  Once you find the answers, you can have hope.  Once you know where the hope comes from, you can have a new life.