How should the Christian life be lived?

How should the Christian life be lived?

“I am crucified with Christ, yet I live; Nevertheless, I am not, but Christ lives in me; And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“But what I am by the grace of God; and his grace bestowed upon me was not in vain; But I worked harder than all of them; Yet it is not me, but the grace of God that I have” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

How should the Christian life be lived? Every believer must diligently search the Scriptures to learn what God has taught about it. There are many misconceptions about living the Christian life today. One notion states that a believer’s life is subject to the law and that it is through which he is sanctified. However, the key to the Christian life is found not on Mount Sinai, but on Mount Calvary. The Christian life is based not on anything we need to do, but on what Christ has done. May God open our hearts’ eyes to see how the Work that Christ has accomplished on the cross relates to our day-to-day walk with Christ?

The Lord Jesus Christ is our life. “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also died for the law by the body of Christ, to be of another man, who has risen from the dead, so that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). By God’s grace, we have been brought into an amazing union with Christ. May the Lord open our eyes to see these things?

The following sections in different divisions will help you understand what the Christian life is and how it should be lived. The teachings of the New Testament letters are very clear. May God help us to understand these things?

1. The Christian life is not less than a fraction of the life of Christ.

“I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5).

“. . . Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too must walk in the newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

“Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

“For Christ is to live for me” (Philippians 1:21).

“The hope of glory in Christ you . . . When Christ, who is our life, appears, you will also appear in glory with Him” (Colossians 1:27; 3:3-4)

“That the life of Jesus may also be revealed to our flesh . . . For that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body” (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).

“My little children, until Christ is made in you, I will again be in labor for you” (Galatians 4:19).

The Christian life is for Christ to reveal His life into the life of the believer and for Him to live through him!

2) The life of Christ is revealed through the power of the ingoing Holy Spirit.

“For he is with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17).

“He will bear witness about me . . . He will glorify me” (John 15:26; 16:14)

“But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have power” (Acts 1:8).

“And with great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has redeemed me from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

“So that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

“But I say this: Walk in the Spirit, and you will by no means fulfill the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

“According to the work of his mighty power, let us know the greatness of his power toward those who believe” (Ephesians 1:19).

“Now to him, who, according to his power to act within us, can do exceed all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

3. The power of the Christian life is the great work that God is doing in me.

“That no creature may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:29; See also verse 30 from which I know that Jesus Christ is my holiness)

“For we are the works of his hand created in Christ Jesus for the good works, in which God has prepared him beforehand that we should walk” (Ephesians 2:10).

“For in Christ Jesus there is neither circumcision nor circumcision of any use, but of new creation” (Galatians 6:15).

“For god is the One who works within you to do both will and work according to his good will” (Philippians 2:13).

“You cannot do anything apart from me” (John 15:5).

“For this I also, according to his impressive work, who works powerfully in me, strive and work hard” (Colossians 1:29).

“Let you be perfected to do his will in every good work, and do to you through Jesus Christ what is most pleasing in his sight; May he be glorified forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:21)

4. The Christian life is based on what Christ accomplishes.

This is not the key to what I do. But this is the key to what Jesus Christ has done.

We know that this is true when it comes to salvation, and we rely on what Christ accomplishes. However, when it comes to the Christian life, many believers stop doing so. The following need to be personalized by faith:

“We must no longer be slaves of sin, knowing that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be worthless” (Romans 6:6). We do not have to crucify an old man, that is, it is not our job to crucify an old man. This was completed nearly 2,000 years ago.

“I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20— this is the complete truth!)

“For this reason, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old things have passed away; Behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are not commanded to be a new creation. This is not a commandment to be obeyed, but a truth to be believed in!

“Don’t lie to one another; For you have cast out the old man his works, and clothed the new one, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator” (Colossians 3:9-10).

Note that Paul does not tell us to “cast out the old man and put on the new man” [although he tells us this in Ephesians chapter 4]. Colossians 3 emphasizes the truth of the believer’s condition, and Paul says that the believer should not expel the old man because it has been accomplished. You have cast out the old man, it is a reality, a truth; and we must make the truth of God our own by faith.

5) Important Truths of Assimilation

To be saved, I believed in a glorious truth: Jesus Christ died for me and rose again. In order to live the Christian life, I must believe in another glorious truth: I died with Christ and I was raised with Christ. Both of these truths have been fulfilled. The truth associated with my salvation is that Christ died for my sins! That is, substitution is related to justification. The truth related to my Christian life is that I died with Christ! That is, assimilation is associated with sanctification.

“How can we who have died for sin live in it?” (Romans 6:2)

“Knowing that our old man was crucified with him” (Romans 6:6)

“I am crucified with Christ, yet I live” (Galatians 2:20).

“You have died with Christ” (Colossians 2:20).

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

“He himself bore our sins on the cross in his body, that we might die for sins and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

6. Personalizing the Truths of God’s Word by Faith

These truths are true for every world. Faith is the key to these truths being true in our actual experience . The more we believe these truths, the more we will find them to be true in our true experience. Many times, we turn our eyes away from the truth of our perfect state in Jesus Christ and wrongfully apply it to our defeating, imperfect, and struggling practice. A faithful man gave a helpful example: “Truth, faith, and practice were moving over walls. The truth proceeded steadily; He didn’t look to the right, he didn’t look left, he didn’t look back. Faith was following and it was fine as long

as he saw the truth; But when he worried about the practice, “How would he be?” When he looked back, he lost his balance and fell from the wall, and the poor old practice fell behind him. Faith is the Key!

“In the same way, consider yourselves to be truly dead for sin, but alive for God through our Lord Jesus Christ [believe the truth]!(Romans 6:11)

“At baptism you were buried with him, in which you were also raised with him by faith in the work of God who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12).

“I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“For in Christ Jesus there is neither circumcision nor circumcision of any use, but faith, which works by love” (Galatians 5:6).

“So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief . . . Let us therefore strive to enter into that rest, lest a man fight according to the pattern of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19; 4:11)

“For every one born of God has victory over the world; And our faith is the victory that triumphs over the world” (1 John 5:4).

“Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3:17).

“The righteous shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38)

7) The Christian life must continue as it began.

“Therefore walk in him, just as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord” (Colossians 2:6).

“For we walk not by appearance, but by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

“Have you received the Spirit through the works of the law, or by the news of faith? Are you so unintelligent? Start in the spirit and now finish it in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:2-3)

“For through the Spirit we look by faith to the hope of righteousness . . . You were running well; Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:5-7)

“Let us run with patience the race before us, looking at Jesus, the Doer and Perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Just as the cross is central or prominent in the Gospel, so the cross must be the central or major thing of the Christian life.

“But I am not proud of anything but on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified for me, and I am crucified for the world” (Galatians 6:14).

“I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

“Knowing that our old man was crucified with him ” (ROMANS 6:6)

“For I had decided not to know among you anything but Jesus Christ, and his crucifixion” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

“May I, being one with his death, know him, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his afflictions” (Philippians 3:10).

“We carry the ‘death’ of the Lord Jesus into the flesh forever, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies; . . . We, the living, will be handed over to death forever because of Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).

“For the love of Christ compels us, for we make this decision — if one dies for all, indeed all died; And he died for all; Therefore, those who live must no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it shall be alone; But if he dies, he produces a lot of fruit. He who loves his soul will lose it; And he that hadith his soul in this world shall preserve it for everlasting life” (John 12:24-25).

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

“Therefore , because Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, you also have a weapon with the same kind of heart” (1 Peter 4:1).

9) The believer is not subject to the law as the law of living, and he is not subject to it as a means of sanctification.

“For sin will not rule over you; For you are not under the law, but under grace” (See Romans 6:14 and 15)

“All I want to know from you is that you received the Spirit through the works of the law or by the news of faith? Are you so unintelligent? Start in the spirit and now finish it in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:2 -3)

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law” (Galatians 5:18).

“The righteous will live by faith. But the Law is not of faith; But “he that keepeth him shall live by them”” (Galatians 3:11-12).

The law cannot give life. The law cannot sanctify a person. It cannot purify. There is no problem with the Law (Romans 7:12). The problem is that sinful, sin-corrupt people cannot obey it (Romans 7:14). Those who place themselves under the law will certainly feel bound, for sin will rule over them (compare Romans 6:14). Jesus Christ is the criterion of our life: “It is Christ to live for me” (Philippians 1:21). Our physical efforts and struggles to obey God’s holy law can never succeed. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has redeemed me from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). The law is never going to be fulfilled by us, but it can be fulfilled in us by god’s power and work adopted by faith. “So that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). Just as salvation is “by grace by faith,” so is sanctification.

10) The Christian is totally indebted to God’s grace!

“That no creature may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:29)

“But what I am is by the grace of God; And his grace bestowed upon me was not in vain; But I worked harder than all of them; Yet it is not me, but the grace of God that I have” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“For by faith you have been saved by grace . . . For we are the workman of his hand created in Christ Jesus for the good works, in which God has prepared him in advance for the work in which we should walk . . . For in Christ Jesus there is neither circumcision nor un circumcision of any use, but of new creation. And peace and mercy be upon all who walk according to this law, and upon the Israel of God” (Ephesians 2:8-10; Galatians 6:15-16)

“Then what? Should we sin because we are not subject to the law, but under grace? Not at all!(See Romans 6:15 and 14.)

“For the grace of God, which brings salvation, has appeared to all men, and teaches us that we must live in this present world with self-control, righteousness, and devotion, rejecting ungodliness and worldly desires” (Titus 2:11-12).

“And God is able to give you all the grace, that you may be filled with all things forever and full for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

“My grace is abundant for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).

“Paul and Barnabas . . . They celebrated them by saying, “Keep on walking in the grace of God” (Acts 13:43—We must not only be saved by grace but also persevere in grace. The Christian life must proceed as it began)

“And just as sin reigned in death, so let grace through our Lord Jesus Christ reign through righteousness for eternal life” (Romans 5:21).

“Then, as his fellow workers, we beseech you also: ‘Do not accept the grace of God in vain!”” (2 Corinthians 6:1)

“I do not make the grace of God useless” (Galatians 2:21; See Galatians 5:4 and Hebrews 12:15)

“Grace . . . grow in” (2 Peter 3:18)

Grace means that God receives all credit! His salvation belongs to him! Life belongs to Him! Glory be to God, glory be to The Lamb! Let Christ be glorified in our bodies (Philippians 1:20)! May Christ be made in us (Galatians 4:19)! Let His fruit be for His glory (Philippians 1:11)! We are vessels to glorify Him (Ephesians 2:7)! Seeing God’s grace, I consider myself indebted! “I am what I am by the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “And as it is written, ‘He that boasted, let him boast in the Lord'” (1 Corinthians 1:31).

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