When a person is born again, what’s new about their life?

In Matthew 28:19, we read Jesus’ instruction that new Christians are to be baptized “… in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Often, when a minister is baptizing someone, they’ll say they are being baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then many minsters add just before immersing the person in water, “Buried with Christ …” and then will say while raising the person out of the water, “… raised to walk in newness of life.”

What is this “newness of life” the minster is referring to?

Here’s how the Apostle Paul responds to that question:

“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives,” Romans 6:1-4.

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Take a look at just some of the ways life is new for those who surrender their lives to Jesus Christ:

A NEW SELF
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:20.

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there,” Galatians 5:24.

“Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living,” Romans 6:18.

A NEW FATHER
Before becoming a Christian, you may have thought of God as the Creator but not as intimately as your own heavenly Father. That changes when we’re born again, as God adopts us into His own family with full standing as His own sons and daughters!

“But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir,” Galatians 4:4-7.

A NEW LEADER
For the new Christian, Jesus doesn’t become just their Savior, but their Lord as well. When we’re born again, we give up our lives to the rule and reign — the Lordship — of Jesus Christ.

“On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords,” Revelation 19:16.

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” Romans 10:9.

A NEW HELPER
When we become disciples of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us to help us be able to live as children of God by transforming us into the likeness of Jesus over our lifetime.

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body,” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you,” John 14:15-17.

“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life[d] because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children,” Romans 8:9-16.

A NEW FAMILY
When you are born again, you’re born into God’s family as He adopts us as His sons and daughters — you’re now part of the family of God!

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn — not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God,” John 1:12-13.

“So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family,” Ephesians 2:19.

A NEW KINGDOM
As children of God, we are also made to be citizens of the Kingdom of God!

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” Colossians 1:13-14 (NASB).

Jesus implores us, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need,” Matthew 6:33.

A NEW VOCATION
When we are born again, we are born into God’s family where He not only takes us into His kingdom and adopts us as His own sons and daughters, but He also appoints us to be ambassadors for Christ with a new vocation: the ministry of reconciliation! The Apostle Paul explains this …

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'” 2 Corinthians 5:17-20.

CONCLUSION
Many people have longed for a new life, and many have tried to create new lives for themselves … only to fail. Pastor Perry Greene relates a story from Henry David Thoreau’s classic book, “Walden,” about how the Mucclasse Indians practiced an annual ritual of “newness”:

Once each year, they had a village clean up called a “busk.” First they would make new clothes for themselves as well as furniture and cooking utensils. They would keep all of these new things in a building outside of the village. When everything was ready, they would begin their annual spring cleaning.

Every corner of every house was scrubbed. Every stick of furniture was thrown out. Every child’s toy went to the garbage heap. The dirt paths were swept, and the weeds were plucked up. Even the food left over from winter was thrown out. All of the refuse in the village was gathered together into a pile in the center of the village. Then the chief set it on fire. As they watched it burn, they took off their clothes and tossed them into the fire as well. They tended the fire carefully and made sure that every last piece of garbage was burned.

On the fourth morning, they washed and bathed, and dressed in their new clothes. They then gathered again at the heart of the village. The chief started a new fire and from the flames each family took burning sticks home to start their own fires. The old was gone, life was beginning again!

While the tribe might have had a recent bath and new things, it was the same people who remained. They didn’t have any means of transforming themselves.

It’s very different for Christians! Through Christ, WE are new creations!

Have you been buried with Christ so that you can be raised to walk in newness of life?

Scotty