A Life In Christ Is A changed Life

But this is not the way you learned Christ. If you have been taught the truth in Jesus you will avoid the extremes of law and licentiousness. We can not be good enough to achieve God's acceptance through obeying the law and man made rules. In Christ we are free from the law of sin and death because there is no condemnation through faith. However, our freedom is not an occasion of the flesh, to throw off moral restraint as if God doesn't care about our behavior.  

A life in Christ is a changed life. 

Pre Truth we are dressed in the selfish and deceitfulness of the flesh; clothing marked by sin and death. There is no hope and God is far away. Our every motivation is self centered and any good we might do is as dirty rags to God.

Post Truth for those who believe is a renewing of the mind, a change of heart, a different way of looking at people and situations. We see the disparity between God and man, and understand the necessity of the cross and the beauty of the resurrection. The filling of the Holy Spirit empowers us and liberates us to follow after God with a heart of love and gratitude. In Christ the renewed mind is able to chose how to live.

When the mind is renewed we are given different clothes that we chose to wear each day. Too many Christians hold on to the old clothes because they are familiar and comfortable. Sin is pleasurable for the moment and in times of stress and temptation are attractive because it promises temporary relief, but they will always lead us away from God.

Yet, there is another set of clothes that the spirit lays out, beautifully woven from the fabric of God's true righteousness and holiness. They fit perfectly and promise peace in trials, hope in desperation, blessing in obedience, power in weakness, joy in sorrow, escape in temptation, perseverance in persecution, and purpose in life. 

If you take a poor child, dirty, hungry, and sick, give him a bath, new cloths, some healthy food, and medicine you will see a transformed countenance. He will be happier, feel more secure, and appreciative. That is what God does for the inner man, and in the transformation he offers a better way. 

Each day our cloths are set out. Each day we have a choice. Each day is an opportunity to dress up or dress down. Which set of clothes will you chose? I'm just saying...

Eph. 4:20-24 "But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."