One more year has gone into history and we have entered into a new year. We all look forward to receiving gifts on our birthdays and on festivals and also the New Year’s Day. Do you know what gifts our heavenly Father has in store for you this year? What promises He has for you? Let’s search the Scriptures and see what they are!
Rom.6: 4. ‘Even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ We must not be as we were previously or do as we were. Our old life, which was full of sin and shame, is dead and buried with Yahshua, in our baptism. We rise with Yahshua in the new life. It is through the glory of the Father that we rise and walk in the new life, a life free from all bondages of sin. 1 Cor.5: 7 says,’ purge out therefore the old leaven…’ We should put away from ourselves everything that comes between Elohim and us, everything that corrupts us. Eph.2: 10 says that we are His workmanship...created unto good works…that we may walk in them. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Yahshua Messiah, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.(Rom.8: 1)
Rom.7: 6.’We should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter’. We must change our ways. We must still serve by new spiritual rules and principles, in spirit and in truth. It is to be of a spiritual nature and not as per the letter of the law. The worship required under the gospel is of the heart and spirit. When we say ‘serve’ we are ministering or attending to the needs of others. As ministers therefore, we are ambassadors of Messiah. (2 Cor.5: 20), we are ministers of Messiah. (1 Cor.4: 1) As ministers of the Lord the Holy Spirit sends us to people who have need of the Gospel. We can see in Acts.13: 4, how Paul was sent by the Holy Spirit to Cyprus.
Eph.4: 24.’And that you put on the new man, which after Elohim is created in righteousness and true holiness’. This passage along with Col.3: 10, proves that man was filled with righteousness, holiness and knowledge, before he fell. We read in Gen.1: 26, that Elohim created man ‘in His image’. So man was acquainted with the Creator. But after he fell, he lost the knowledge of Elohim. The new man means a new nature, new principles, new hearts and new spirits. The new man lives a new life really repenting of sin and does not return to it again.
All this is not by the power of man, but by the Spirit of Elohim; this is Elohim's work, and not man's. The soul is "created", and therefore is not in man's power, which cannot create; it is only Elohim who can create. He has created it after his image, and in his likeness; which is righteous and truly holy.
This holiness is not the empty holiness of the Jews or the pretended holiness of the hypocrites
This kind of a new man is renewed everyday; he increases in holiness, righteousness and grows in grace daily. His knowledge increases, of his old condition or state, and of his need of Messiah and His salvation.
2 Cor.5: 17. ‘If any man be in Messiah, he is a new creation.’ That is if any man accepts Yahshua Messiah as his savior, if his way of life changes, his thinking changes, his feelings towards his neighbors change, if he has become a true Christian, then it is right to say that he is a new creation.
He was a child of satan, he is now a child of Elohim; he was a slave of sin, and his works led to death; he is now free from sin, and has his fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. He was before full of pride and wrath; he is now meek and humble. He previously lived for this world alone; now he lives for Elohim, and he looks not at the things, which are seen, but at the things, which are eternal. The old man is dead and a new man has risen in his place, a man after the image of His Creator.
Ezek.11: 19. ‘And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh.’ These words prophesied by Ezekiel, referred to the captivity of Israel in Babylon. Their hearts went far from the true Elohim and they worshipped idols. Unity of hearts was impossible but now when they take away the ‘abominations’ (v.18) then their hearts will be one, that is, they will unite in their hearts. A new heart would be given to them. Their hearts were hardened in sin, had become insensitive towards Elohim and what was good. Their hearts were
senseless and stubborn and it is only by the grace of Elohim that such hearts can change.
The same prophecy holds good for us today.
Our walk in “newness of life” should be motivated by these three things:
1. We Should Be Motivated By Our Position In Messiah - 1 John 3:1-3 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of Elohim: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.2 Beloved, now are we the sons of Elohim, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
2. We Should Be Motivated By Our Debt To Messiah - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of Elohim, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify Elohim in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
3. We Should Be Motivated By Our Love For Messiah - Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of Elohim leadeth thee to repentance?
Our hearts have become immune to the needs of the world. We are so busy in our own lives that we have stopped drawing a line between good and bad and do what we think is right and not what is right. We have forgotten the great commission which our Messiah gave us, ‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’.
