YOUR NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

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1 Your life in christ YOUR NEW LIFE IN CHRIST lesson 8 When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, He becomes your Savior and your Sovereign Lord and Master. You are under new ownership. You can only enjoy your new life in Christ as you daily seek His will and follow Him in obedience. Your conviction to follow Christ and call to obedience will flow out of the intimacy of your relationship with Him. This process is often referred to as Lordship. This week you will gain a better understanding of how to transform your old life into your new life in Christ. BEING MADE NEW IN CHRIST 1. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! a. What happens to you when you become a Christian? b. Even though you desire to follow Christ, you continue to sin and fall short of where God would like you to be in Christ. What does it mean that the new has come when this is happening? 2. Matthew 7:24-27 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. a. How do you build a solid foundation in your Christian life? b. How do we build a foundation on sand? 1

2 3. Romans 7: 7-8:4 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. a. Give a brief description of the struggle between our flesh and the law and how God freed man from this struggle Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. a. What is happening to your old life (self)? b. This process of change can be challenging and sometimes confusing. How should you approach these changes? 2

3 HINDRANCES TO SANCTIFICATION 5. James 1:13-14 When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. a. The process of sanctification is often detained or derailed by temptation. What is the cause of temptation? 6. Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. a. What will hurt your ability to prosper and succeed in your Christian walk? b. How does God want you to deal with sin so that you can experience the abundant Christian life? 7. Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is His good, pleasing and perfect will. a. What robs you of the transforming power of Christ? 8. 1John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world. a. What displaces God and His transforming power in your life? 3

4 VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING The victorious Christian life is living a life under God s will, direction, and influence so that you can experience His plans and purpose for you. The natural results of such a life are peace, joy, and purposeful living. 9. Matthew 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. a. What should you do to experience the victorious Christian life? John 5:3 This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, a. The victorious Christian life is not so much about what you receive, but about connecting with God so more of Him is released into you. What is one of the best ways for this to happen? 11. Romans 6:11-13, 19 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. a. What practical things can you do to live a righteous and holy life (Victorious Christian Life)? b. What are some actual things you can do to not expose yourself to sin? 4

5 c. What are some actual things you can do to expose yourself to righteousness? 12. Philippians 3:7-8 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. a. This verse describes the exchanged life for Christ. Explain the exchanged life. b. Why would Paul consider what used to be profitable to him as a loss compared to knowing Christ? 13. Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. a. Describe the three steps Paul outlines to become more like Christ: 14. Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. a. The Christian life is a process. How are we to live it? 5

6 15. Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. a. The process of sanctification continues to make you more Christ-like. How can you become more like Christ? 16. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. a. How are you to live your life in Christ? 17. Galatians 5:16-18 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. a. How can you live for Christ and not your sinful past? The next lesson (Practicing Your Life in Christ) in Your Life in Christ will help you in the sanctification process of becoming more like Christ. 6