Truth That Changes Lives on Oneplace.com

We all have a history! We come into this world, Romans 5: 15-19 says, with a history in Adam! This is what God does. God gives us a whole new spiritual history. A whole new spiritual genealogy! He translates us out of our identitiy just in Adam and gives us a new identity in Jesus Christ!

It's a simple story with profound implications! Sin has entered the world! We don't think right, we don't feel right, we don't act right, we don't live right! And nobody else does either! I'm a sinner who sins and you are too! Because sin had entered the world! That's what Romans 5 is telling us! Now, if that's all there was that would just be bad news! But the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, is good news!

You know how you learn the bible? You read it, you study it and you memorize it! That's just it! You know how you grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ? You pursue Him and you structure your life around the activities and disciplines that help you get to know Him. So you structure your life around studying God's word, around prayer and being around other Christians. Around worship, around service. You plan a life that will lead you towards the knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:1-11 is what God says is true! And whoever you may be and whatever your back ground is, there is a commonality among all of us! Our perceptions at some level are false! And God wants to take the truth and set us free!

This is tough stuff, but this is real stuff! This is the stuff where theology becomes life change! This is the stuff where truth sets us free! This is where we read Collosians 3 and it's not just a good bible study, but it's words of life and hope and truth that transform us!

In whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus! Giving thanks through Him to God the Father! That's real life! And it makes sense when you understand what we've been given in Christ! The grace, forgiveness, hope and life we have been given!

When we crossed the line and came into new life with Christ we became a new creature. We're united with Christ in a way that transcends our real ability to understand. We died with Christ, we were raised up with Christ, we received a whole new spiritual nature, we put off that old life, we put on the new life; we won the lottery! Spiritually speaking we did! And so the bible is telling us redeem it! Act upon it!

And I think all of us have had enough of religion! In fact that's the one thing that Jesus and the apostle Paul and the writers of the new testament speak out strongly against! And that's reducing a living relationship with Christ to a bunch of rules and regulations that we have to try to fulfill in our own power. That's not what this is about!

We are to put on it says, we are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bare with each other and forgive whatever grievences you may have against one another. To bear with someone is to endure, to put up with their irritations!

If we try to live a new life without understanding our new identity, we're merely following a religion. Trying to live up to some do's and dont's. The bible does not present Christianity as just another religion; just an elevated sense of do's and dont's! It's a whole new relationship!