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Very often, a Christian testimony centers on what has been before in their lives and what has happened to their lives after receiving Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The teaching of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” This is the life changing power of believing in Jesus, accepting His grace, mercy and salvation, showcased through a distinct change in our position before a holy God and our own human behaviour. When you come to believing faith in Jesus, there will be evidence of your Christian faith in your lives. The inward change of receiving God and letting Jesus into your heart will often manifest in outward changes of, for example, the love you would show someone else, as compared to that coming from your hardened human heart as a non-Christian. Jesus’ encouragement to us as Christians is to: “Love God and Love People”. Jesus taught: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 39).
Many of these changes in our new Christian life in Jesus may appear to be through our own personal effort. We are new Christians now making a conscious effort to hate sin, as we are instructed to “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). As Christians, we are now all made aware of God’s law and His righteous way as taught in the Bible and hence will try to change ourselves under His law. However, as we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we are incapable of following God’s righteous law. The purpose of the God’s law, as written in Romans 3:20 “[Therefore] no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
This is all done so that we, as Christians under His law, recognise our need for God in our lives and his salvation to enact true change to our human nature. Only through the New Covenant and the Holy Spirit inspired and led ministry in our Christian lives can we experience a true change in our lives. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). It is God’s will, and not our own efforts, which will truly set us free from sin, as we “are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18b). The clear teaching of the Bible is: “Believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour – you become New Creation. Old has gone – New has come”.
