This is a neat time of year; winter is almost over and even if Spring hasn’t quite arrived by Easter, we know it will be here soon. Spring and Easter both remind us of new life; Spring brings new life all around us and at Easter Christians remember that Jesus was raised to life and is still alive.
I enjoy the signs of Spring very much, but couldn’t say that they give me new life- even though they might put a smile on my face! But God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, offers us new life. It was a long time before I realized this. I studied Jesus’ life according to the Bible in high school in my religious education classes. So I knew about the resurrection and knew that people argued over whether it really happened. I thought it maybe it did; I didn’t know. I didn’t know there was anything more to being a Christian than being one of those people who were of the opinion “yes, that probably did happen a long time ago”.
But when I was twenty I heard something that I’d never heard before: that being a Christian was about beginning a new life with God; it was not simply mental assent to some historical fact. I heard that God has a plan for my life and wanted me to give my life to Him so He could show me what His plan was. That His plan was better than mine could ever be (since He knows all things) and was the best plan for me (because He is love and loves me). That giving God control was not just a matter of coming under some external code of conduct but about inviting Jesus, who is very much alive, into my life to be Lord of it. This new life was freely offered to me by God but it cost Him a very high price; Jesus His Son had to die for my sins, otherwise I couldn’t have a relationship with Him because my sins separated us. The only way to have this new life and relationship was to receive it from God as a gift. It would be impossible for me to earn my way into a relationship with God by doing good things.
I thought carefully about beginning this new life because it was obviously a commitment that would involve changes in my life although I didn’t know what they would be. A couple of weeks later I did decide to pray a prayer along the lines of “Jesus (if you’re real), thank you for dying on the cross so I could be forgiven. Please come into my heart and life and take control of it.”
Until then I was thinking the changes in my life would be external – for example, now my schedule would change because I’d have to go to church! But in fact God began changing me on the inside within days, as I realized that since God loved me totally and unconditionally, I could begin to let go of unforgiveness towards people and a need to impress others or be a certain way to win their approval. Now I knew God loved me, it didn’t matter so much what other people thought and now I had a relationship with God I would always have Someone to go to when I was lonely or afraid or needing direction in my life.
God is still changing me (as fast as I will let Him!) and bringing new life into my life. And I’m very thankful I can teach my children about having new life through Jesus before they are twenty. I hope you will consider coming to God and receiving the new life He offers through Jesus, this Easter, if you have never done so.
Bible verses to look up about new life in Jesus: John 3:16, John 5:24, John 14:6, 2 Cor 5:21, Eph 2:1-10, Rom 8:9-11, Rom 5:8 (see below)
Bible Passages Mentioned Above:
John 3:16 (NIV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 5:24 (NIV) “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
2Cor 5:21 (NIV) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephe 2:1 (NIV) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Roma 8:9 (NIV) You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Roma 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.