New Creations in Christ-Part 3 No Longer Enemies in our Mind

In this third and final segment of this series, "New Creations in Christ," I simply present an example- or a practical application of how what we have learned in parts One and Two of this series might play out in the life of a believer. We have been delivered from the law and the condemnation of the law (ref. Rom. 7:6, 8:1 and 2 Cor. 3:9), but we must understand how these truths- and the choice we make to properly apply them- reflect on our view of God.

A great example of this is something I've seen many times. Christians who smoke often feel very condemned; some I've known have allowed this condemnation to hinder them from church attendance and fellowship. They feel beat up with condemnation because of their powerlessness to quit this habit, but if they are born again, are they righteous? Yes, they are, and they have to know that they are and rest in this truth. Righteousness means they have a right-standing with God, apart from their works or self-effort. Now, we know smoking is harmful, and God knows it, too, but this addictive habit is very difficult to break. If a Christian who smokes rests in the fact that he or she is in right-standing with God, even as a smoker, he removes himself from the condemnation of the law, along with the desires or sinful passions aroused by the law, and thus eventually loses the desire to smoke, breaking his dependency on this habit. God wasn't mad at him for smoking. He's the One who made a way to set him free. [excerpt from Gates: Thanksgiving Papers, pg 38-39]

The enemy is on a smear campaign to distort our view of God's true love for us. It says in the book of Colossians, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight;" (1:21-22)

I hope this study has allowed you to understand who you are as a new creation in Christ. God bless.