New Life Class

Either before or after baptism class. Often we think that repentance and baptism are things Christians do once in their life when they first become a Christian. In actual fact, the process on how we believed sets the pattern for us on how we should live as His people.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Colossians 2:6,7, NASB).

The roots will shape the whole tree. What is under the ground will shape what is above the ground. Our beliefs will determine our lives. The apostle asserts that we must take every opportunity to match the beginning parts of our Christian lives to our later parts. Let's get more specific.

Faith or belief.

We enter the Christian experience by faith. However, this is not just a one time event. Our faith is either growing or getting weaker. We are either putting our trust in God for our daily lives or trusting in what we can do (in this case trusting ourselves). God in fact made our faith and trust in Him to grow and to affect each aspect of our daily lives. We use our faith to read God's Word, to pray, to discern what we should say to a hurting friend or make decisions. We no longer are controlled by our surrounding circumstances and things people say but by what God is doing and what God says in His Word.

Baptism

Repentance and faith are the two most significant meanings of baptism. Baptism follows what Christ did when He gave us His life for His people and died on the cross and the new life given to Him after that act. The earthly baptism of Jesus showed this only in symbol. The cross, however, called for real tough decisions to show what He had already been called to early on in His life.

Baptism does what has happened to our inner lives. We share with people how we have died with Christ and now live in Christ. Water baptism shows that we have been called to God to share in this life experience with Christ. But our lives will be tested and proved just as Christ. We will be asked whether we will die to ourselves to our lusts and sinful self or will we serve others. We will be asked whether we are to trust what we can see or trust Him whom we cannot see. The questions are the same.

The fact is, that for us, our lives have much more sin occupying them than we thought. God does not only want to forgive our sins but to empower us to live for Him. This empowering comes about only as we put our sins away. As a gentle Father, the Lord does not point out all of our sins at once. He usually focuses on one or two areas at a time until we get the message and finally repent from some sin.

As I said, our sins are always much more than we could ever deal with. We live by grace!! God exposes these sins, and then we respond to His correction. This is the heart of repentance that we always take along with us. We don't see this exactly modeled in Christ because He had no sins to repent from. However, we see it in the way He still had to subject His responses to God's will. In a real sense, He had to die to Himself. He resigned only to do what the Father wanted. Of course, at the same time He committed Himself to do only what His Father really wanted. They are two sides of the same coin.

Our Christian lives will only be as effective as we put away our sin and let Christ rule our lives. This requires an examination of our hearts. Some things are effectively dealt with at conversion when we first become a Christian, but the rest of our lives need to be focused on eliminating all bad habits, attitudes, thoughts and wrong behaviors. Think of it as God giving us a extra boost in the beginning. It is all part of a greater process of renewal and restoration to what God wants for us.