Your new life with Jesus Christ means that your inner spirit has been brought into a new relationship with God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. When God first designed you, He intended you to be in close fellowship and friendship with Him. You should not condemn your failure, but you do need to be honest and acknowledge the truth. (Romans 3:12,17,23).
Your saviour, your relationship with God is established. The moment you made that decision and believed in several things for you:
Redemption: You are forgiven of sin. So overflowing is His kindness toward us that He took whom we are saved. (Ephesians 1:7)
Justification: You have peace with God. So now, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith in His promises, we can have real peace with Him because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (Romans 5:1).
New life through your prayer
God directed Moses to get Aaron and his sons the priests. Moses killed animals and made some food. He took them to the sanctuary inside the Most Holy Place. Aaron and his sons took their bath. They wore new clothes. Moses poured oil upon their heads. He anointed them. Then, he cleansed the altar with the blood of the animals for seven days. He used the blood of an animal for one day.
The cleansing of the altar was to make Aaron and his sons clean. And, also that God would forgive them their sins. This was how Aaron and his sons became priests among the children of the Israelites. A priest is a person who makes sacrifices for people to God, just like a pastor today. The priests enter the Holy Place to make sacrifices. The high priest enters the Most Holy Place once a year to make sacrifices and to speak with God.
A curtain divided the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple tore into two. Matthew 27:51. Jesus Christ made us His priests Revelation 1:6. All of us can enter the Most Holy Place. As priests, all of us can speak with God. We can pray to God. Start a new life through prayers for our daddies, mummies, teachers, pastors, and country.
New life through holiness and relationship
Today’s passage shows that the High Priest would once a year enter the Most Holy Place in the temple to make atonement for the people. They offer sacrifices before the Ark of the Covenant. Sometimes, they would offer God raw or cooked food items to praise Him for His goodness and to receive God’s blessings. Every day, the priests stand and offer the same sacrifices again and again.
But none of these sacrifices could get rid of sin so that God’s presence could dwell among them as it was in the garden with Adam and Eve. God, in His love for us, sent Jesus Christ to come as a sacrifice, die on the cross, and rise again to remove all our sins once and forever. And since Jesus had no sin and obeyed God’s commandments, He was the perfect and acceptable sacrifice to take away our sins.
Through the sacrifice of Jesus for us, God has removed all our sins and restored us to Himself. His Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts; we have become God’s children. Through Jesus, we have been made holy and enjoy a close relationship with God our Father. When you live a holy life and show a relationship with others, you have become a new life in Christ.
New life through victory over sins
We are learning about how Jesus rose from the dead and the grave today; remember that Jesus was taken to Pilate by the Pharisees and crucified by the Roman soldiers on Good Friday, after which He died. He was buried in the tomb, and a big stone was rolled at the entrance of the grave. Jesus suffered for our sins on the cross. The Pharisees did not want Jesus to rise from the dead. So, they sent soldiers to guard the tomb’s entrance.
Early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to look at the tomb. God sent His angel from heaven to the grave to roll the stone away from the entrance. Because of the presence of the Angel, the soldiers were filled with fear and became like dead men. But He is not here. He has risen from death as He said He would.’ In Jesus Christ, we have victory over sin, Satan, and death. After you have the victory over sins, Satan and death, you can live a new life.
New life through salvation
John, the Beloved sees Jesus as the only one who has the power to save us from our sins and make us live with Him forever in heaven. Because Jesus is the Son of God and the Lamb who died for our sins and rose again, he is the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, and the victorious one. The writers of this passage also see Jesus as the one who is worthy to take the scroll (like the Bible we read today) and open its seals because He has used His blood to purchase for God, the people from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Therefore, He is the only one that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given (Matthew 28:18). He alone has the power to save us and help us to overcome. And this made Jesus Christ different from other religious leaders. So, open your heart and invite Jesus to come and be yours forever. He is always with you and ready to help you. Only religion cannot save you; you need true salvation. When you are truly saved, you will begin a new life.
New life through trust in God
God had made a covenant with Abraham that he would become the Father of a great nation. When Abraham was ninety, God fulfilled His promise by giving him Isaac. Later, God tested Abraham by asking him to offer Isaac, the promised child, to Him as a burnt sacrifice. God wanted to prove Abraham’s love, trust, and obedience to Him. Abraham obeyed God; he got up early the following day and went to the mountain.
God told him, with Isaac and two servants and instruments, to sacrifice except the lamb. After three days, Abraham saw the mount afar and told his servant to wait while he and Isaac went further to worship God. Then Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb to sacrifice?” “God will provide the lamb,” Abraham replied in faith. When they reached the mount that God told him, he built an altar and tied Isaac up on it.
As he raised the knife to kill him, an angel of God stopped him, saying, “Do not hurt him.” Now, God knew Abraham truly loved and trusted Him. He honoured his faith by providing a ram to replace Isaac, and Abraham named the place ‘The Lord will provide”. Trusting in God’s love for you will help you to obey Him, even when it is hard. No matter what happens, enter into a new life by trusting Him for everything.