Personal Challenge #7: New Creation (Part 2)

Journal Entry
I am a new creation. That old person is gone. The way I used to carry myself – both in shame and seduction – is washed away. Never to stamp on me again. I relate to men with respect, honor, and sisterly appreciation.

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-24)

I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10

No matter what your sexual past is, all who believe are given righteousness through faith in Jesus. All who believe are justified freely by His grace.

No stain. New.
Not powerless against memories. New.
Not chained to my old ways. New.
Not missing anything. Whole. New.

Personal Challenge:

1. Are there any areas in your life where God wants to show you that you are New?

2. Are there any areas where you still carry yourself as who you were before Christ?

3. Are you still wearing filthy clothes even though Jesus took away your sin at the cross and has new clothes for you? Do you need to receive these new clothes? Let Him change your clothes, by faith.

4. Are there any areas where you aren’t living as a New Creation in Christ? (Behaviours, thought life, etc.). Are there any things belonging to your earthly nature that don’t belong in your new identity? Based on Col 3:1-10, is there anything God is asking you to obey?

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 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. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Eph 2:1-5

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. Eph 4:22-24

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. Col 1:21-23a

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Col 2:13-15

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20