LOVE IS NEW LIFE - Lucy Beaton
LOVE IS NEW LIFE and New is New
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
by: Lucy Beaton
“It is finished”. The old life is gone the New Life has come. Christ in me the hope of glory.
New is new and comes at a price, it is not pre-loved or resale. Love paid the price for us that we might have New Life. The Bride-of Christ must count the cost and pay the price to walk on the arm of the King. A walk on the arm of the King is that or one is not walking with the King. That is something different. Jesus showed us what this New Life would look like, He is the ‘Vessel of Love’.
John 15:13 NKJV 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
The love of God is known to us by His goodness and the drawing of the Holy Spirit. Yet it is only received by faith. To experience that love is a reality, we must believe that Christ died for our sins and through His love, we receive love and become vessels of love. (Carolyn Sissom).
The question Jesus asks is: Do you love Me, is a continual question, daily?
This is our calling— but how we attain to this high calling are two different things.
For this high ‘calling’ is according to God’s plan and purpose…But the attainment of it is according as we love him and learn obedience to walk in His ways. (Carolyn Sissom)
Another continual question is what is my decision today?
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Definition of new (Miriam Webster)
1: having recently come into existence : RECENT, MODERN, FRESH
2a(1): having been seen, used, or known for a short time : NOVEL
(2): UNFAMILIAR visit new places
2b: being other than the former or old (New car)
3: having been in a relationship or condition but a short time (new job)
Therefore, the New Life is totally different from the old. It is a life in the Kingdom of God, with the character and nature of the King of the Kingdom. It is ever changing from day to day. Like the children of Israel in the wilderness eating new manna every day, like Jesus every day doing what He saw his Father doing. It is a life seeing the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. It is a surrendered life, a life given to Jesus. A life dependent on the presence of the Lord. A life where every knee bows, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. A life where all the glory belongs to God. A life of constant eager expectation like the little children to whom Jesus compared the Kingdom of God.
Christian - We are a living sacrifice.
We just remembered the death of Jesus on the cross and celebrated His Resurrection from the dead, through whom we have New Life. The old has gone the New has come, we are a new creation. We cannot pay lip service to being a new creation, our lives will reveal the truth.
Romans 12:1-3 NKJV Living Sacrifices to God
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
1. Present your bodies - your whole selves; so expressed because under the law the bodies of beasts were offered in sacrifice, The offering was sacrificed by the priest, but presented by the offerer, who transferred to God all his right, title, and interest in it, by laying his hand on the head of it. (Matthew Henry).
It was God Who determined what was to be dedicated to Himself. The offerer could not keep back or request part of the sacrifice be given back to him.
We are temple, priest, and sacrifice, as Christ was in his peculiar sacrificing. (Matthew Henry)
2. Living sacrifice - Calvary is not a mere historic event, or to take place in the distant future. The Resurrection and the Life is a Person, even the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in our hearts. We are to be carriers of that Resurrection Life, Light and Love. (Carolyn Sissom)
It is Christ living in us by faith that makes us a living sacrifice. Our choosing to stop our activities and listen for His direction. Seeing what He wants us to do.
3. Holy – our hearts and lives, body and soul, set apart for God, devoted to God as the vessels of the tabernacle were set apart for holy service to God.
We as God’s people are meant to be an example to the world. So when we live lives that are not pure, we are not honoring God, God is not glorified. We give place to the world to mock and scorn and blaspheme God.
4. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind - new dispositions and inclinations, new sympathies and antipathies; the understanding enlightened, the conscience softened, the thoughts rectified; the will bowed to the will of God, and the affections made spiritual and heavenly: so that the man is not what he was-old things are passed away, all things are become new; he acts from new principles, by new rules, with new designs. The mind is the acting ruling part of us; so that the renewing of the mind is the renewing of the whole man, for out of it are the issues of life. (Matthew Henry)
Proverbs 4:23 NKJV Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Being transformed is not going back to Egypt and the bondage it represented.
Deuteronomy 17:16 NKJV 16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’
1 Peter 2:9-10 NKJV But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
1 Peter 2:11-12 NKJV Living Before the World
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:9-12 TPT
9 But you are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. 10 For at one time you were not God’s people, but now you are. At one time you knew nothing of God’s mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now you are drenched with it!
Living Godly Lives
11 My divinely loved friends, since you are resident aliens and foreigners in this world, I appeal to you to divorce yourselves from the evil desires that wage war within you. 12 Live honorable lives as you mix with unbelievers, even though they accuse you of being evildoers. For they will see your beautiful works and have a reason to glorify God in the day he visits us.
Jeremiah’s example through his sermons and signs, faithfully declares that surrender to God’s will is the only way to escape calamity. He prophesied with a broken heart and tears of compassion, and a life a living sacrifice to God.
We come to the table knowing that all God accomplishes in us as we present ourselves as a living sacrifice for His glory, is by His Spirit: that we put on the new man, being not conformed to the world and proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.