New Creation Holiness
This teaching was originally written by pastor Joe McIntyre, who went home to be with the Lord in December 2017. Thanks for all your hard work, Joe. You are truly a blessing even after leaving us here on earth.
If you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have become a New Creation. You are not who you were. A new Life and a new nature have entered your spirit. You have received God's gift of Righteousness and the abundance of the Grace of God (Rom.5:17). Paul informs us that we have been re-created out Righteousness and Holiness of Truth (Eph.4:24). Old things — the things of Adam — have passed away, and all thing in you re-created spirit are of God (2 Cor. 5:17,18).
It is important that we grasp who we are in Christ and become secure in our new Identity in Him. These are Realities and not "positional" truths. Our truest nature is made new and is of God. God took out the stony heart and gave us a heart of flesh upon which He is writing His Laws (2 Cor. 3).
So if all this is true, why do we need to discuss holiness?
God's purpose in the New Creation was that we might enter in to a wonderful life of fellowship with Him. He desired to bring us into a Covenant of Love. As we learn to walk in this New Life, He also wanted us to reveal Him to a lost and dying world. When we don't live the Life that God intended we live before the world, they do not know who God really is.
A recent survey revealed that many today have a positive response to the person of Jesus Christ. When the same people were asked how they felt about Christians, the response was mostly negative. Apparently, we our not showing Jesus to the world.
For who we are in the inner man to be revealed in our lives requires the renewing of our minds. Our Father revealed His Love not by sending a message, but by sending a Son to die for us. Jesus forgave His enemies from the Cross and settled the question of what kind of Love God has.
Holiness is dedication to the same Spirit of Love. If we just love our friends and family, Jesus said we have nothing different than unbelievers. The Reality of the New Creation is shown by demonstrating that we are partakers of the same nature as was revealed in Jesus. If we don?t demonstrate this kind of Love, we have hidden the Light of the New Creation under a bushel and no one can see it.
If we can walk through the world and not be moved by the sin and suffering around us, we should examine our lives and ask ourselves, "If I am a New Creation, how can I not want to compel the lost to come to Christ?" "If I am a New Creation, how can I live a compromised life that looks not much different the those around me that do not know the Savior?" "If I am a New Creation, where is the Love that even loves its enemies and blesses those who curse it?"
We are New Creation people. His Life and Righteousness are in us. An unrenewed carnal mind can praise God for making it a New Creation and live a totally selfish life.
The world deserves to see what Christ died and rose again to show them: A People who walk and live as real New Creation men and women.
Holiness is not optional.
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