2 corinthians 5:17: "therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!" when we come to Christ, we are a new creation. we're a new person. we have new desires and new motives and new beliefs. we have a new perspective because we're in a new place! the old, sinful person is gone, and the new, Christ-like one is here! non-believers and believers are two very different kinds of people. if you're a believer, you're a child of God. you're saved and forgiven! for this reason, we must love others as Christ loved us and gave up His life for the forgiveness of our sins. we must say, "good riddance" to the old lifestyle that we used to live in, before we believed, when we'd wake up and live for our own pleasures and desires. and we should instead say "praise the Lord and may my life glorify Him!" we musn't grieve His Spirit by sinning. we musn't ignore His Word in turn for our own opinions and thoughts and feelings. let's believe- truly believe!- that He is good and everything He does is perfect and fair and right. since we're new people, let's live new lives. this means getting rid of all jealousy and deceit and h@tred and impatience, and instead living good lives, following the steps of our Savior, seeking Him our whole life long! praise our good God! romans 6:1-7. "what shall we say, then? shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? by no means! we are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? we were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. "for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. for we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."
