GROW in His Word: A New Beginning Week 1

Welcome my dear friends! I am doing a bible study with my sisters-in-Christ over in GROW in His Word. It is a 4 week winter bible study. I hope you will choose to follow along and perhaps even join us. 

This week we are looking at 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

Greet:

Heavenly Father, We ask You that You guide us through this study. That it leads us to a deeper understanding of You and the Word. Let us grow in Your love and grow deeper spiritually. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14) Amen.

 Read:

“…Those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Observe

  1.     What do the verses before and after say?

1a. What is “therefore” connecting?

  2.   What does it mean to be in Christ?

  3.   What qualifies as old creation? New? What’s the difference between the two?

  4.   What does this mean for us now?

 Write:

I am completely new at this link-up blog thing. So just bear with me as I learn. So now I will write my thoughts to the questions posted. 


(I am using a New Living Translation bible, so my quotes and responses may be slightly different.)

    1.  Verse 16 says: “So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though He were a human being. How differently I think about Him now.” Verse 18 says: All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to Himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to Him.”

1a. In my version of the bible I don’t have the word “therefore”. If anyone remembers old computer script, “therefore” was an instruction. i.e. It tells you what you need to do or what will happen next. IF you are a believer in Christ, THEN you are a new creation.  

    2.  What does it mean to be IN CHRIST? It means to be one with Christ. It means to be in sync with Christ’s plans for your life. It means that all that you do in your life is Christ-centered. You live your life as an example of Christ’s love.

   3.   An old creation. The way we were before Christ came into our lives and changed who we were. We may or may not have accepted Christ at some point in our lives. I was raised Roman Catholic. I was baptized in a Catholic church. It wasn’t my choice, however. I was only 6 months old. My parents made the choice for me. 

    It wasn’t until my 40’s when I made the conscious choice to follow Jesus. (I had always believed in God and received all the sacraments as is Catholic belief.) But, this time, I stood in front of the people at my (then) church and professed my faith in God and that I would follow His teachings and live my life according to the way He expected. I was then a NEW creation in Christ. I was starting all over. I was allowing God to do what He felt needed to be done to change who I was. I was going to learn all I could and follow God’s plan for me. 

    Think of a blank canvas. Maybe it had been used before, but now it was painted over and ready to be used again. Perhaps in a different manner or a different style. That is the difference. We are now doing something NEW with our faith. We are starting over. We are allowing Jesus to guide our lives and stepping out in faith, no matter how scary it was. We know that Jesus is going to be with us every step of the way from now on.

    4. What does that mean for us now? It means we have a new start in our lives. We have a new way to live our lives, in accordance with God’s plan for us. We are no longer in charge. We are like that blank canvas. Ready to be painted on with God’s love and His words. Who we were before is all gone. We have been forgiven. We have a second chance (or third, or fourth..) in life to “get it right”. We are secure in the knowledge of God’s love for us.