New Life In Christ SS1 Christian Religious Studies (CRS) Lesson Note

At creation, man was the epitome of God’s glory and could relate with God directly. However, it was not long before man fell from this exalted state. Man was banished out of the garden and sin became the order of the day. Cain killed his brother Abel and iniquity was very prevalent on Earth.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5 Again in Jeremiah, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

The old life is the life of the flesh, it can also be referred to as the life of the Falling Man.

Characteristics Of The Old Life (Gal. 5:19-21, Col. 3:5-7)

There’s a need for a change from this old life. Jesus Christ came in the body to save us from this old life. Salvation is a deliverance from the old life. Paul in his epistle to the Romans and Colossians made it clear that the moment an individual comes to receive the lordship of Jesus, he’s expected to drop his old nature and wear the New nature. Christians are expected to live a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

Paul wrote to the Galatian church that, if they let the Spirit lead them, they are not under the law.

The characteristics of the old man include committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things, worshipping false gods, taking part in witchcraft, hating people, causing trouble, being jealous, angry or selfish, causing people to argue and divide into separate groups, being filled with envy, getting drunk, having wild parties, etc. He warned that the people who do these things will not have a part in God’s kingdom.

NEED FOR CHANGE (ROM.6:1-4)

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful self. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit and must not feel proud and boast about ourselves. We must not cause trouble for each other or be jealous of each other.

Paul in his letter to the Colossians encouraged them to have faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ there for they expected to seek things above. This implies that they should seek heavenly things by putting away mundane or earthly things. He emphasized to them that these things are old nature which must be put off and then putting on the new nature which is renewed in the knowledge and image of God there must, therefore, be no discrimination among them.

The characteristics of the new life are referred to as the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit produces in a person’s life love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Ways Christians Can Show Their New Life In Christ

1. Living a New life and forgetting the old.
2. As Christians, we should be light and salt of the World as Christ commands.
3. As Christians, we must get involved in the works of preaching the gospel and contributing our quota for every good work within the Christian community.

The following are practices which can have negative effects in any Christian community: gossiping, backbiting, social injustice, sexual immorality, fraud and corruption, child abuse, drug abuse, jealousy, envy, quarrelling, fighting and unforgiveness, drunkenness, greed, selfishness, hatred, etc.

Need TO Stick To New Life ( Rom. 6:12-19)

Believers should not let sin control their lives here on earth. We must not be ruled by the things our sinful self makes us want to do. We should not offer the parts of our body to serve sin. Our bodies should not be used to do evil, but offered to God, as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. Sin should not be our master, because we are not under the law but now live under God’s grace.

So what should we do? Should we sin because we are under grace and not under the law? Certainly not! We are expected to stick to the new life in Christ Jesus.

We know that we become the slaves of whatever we give ourselves to. Anything or anyone we follow will be our master. Therefore, we must not follow sin but obey God. This is because the following sins bring spiritual death, but obeying God makes us right with him. In the past, we offered the parts of our body to be slaves to our immoral and sinful thoughts. The result was that we lived only for sin

Before salvation, we were slaves to sin-sin controlled us. But thank God, at salvation we fully obeyed righteousness.

This is because we were made free from sin, and now we are slaves to what is right. In the same way, we must now offer ourselves to be slaves to what is right. Then we will live only for God.

Steps new believers should take before initiation into the new life in Christ.

1. The individual must listen to the world of God.
2. Confession of Sin by word of mouth then follows conviction and belief in the word preached.
3. Baptism
4. Determination to live worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ while being a member of the church.
5. Confirmation by the Bishop of the church after which the person is entitled to partake in the body and blood of Jesus during Holy Communion.

ASSIGNMENT 

1. What is Paul’s teaching on New Life in Christ in what two ways can Christians manifest this? (SSCE August 1991).

2. Outline the features of the new Life in Christ as stated by Paul to the Colossians.

3. Identify three practices which can have negative effects on the Christian community (June 2006, WASSCE).