Live the New Life Now

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Live as God's One New Humanity
Romans 2:9 There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the
Greek, 10but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the
Greek. 11For God shows no partiality. 12 All who have sinned apart from the law (i.e., the
Greek/Gentiles) will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law (i.e.,
Jews) will be judged by the law.

Ephesians 2:15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might
create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile
both groups [Jew and Gentile] to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that
hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off [Gentiles] and
peace to those who were near [Jews]; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the
Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and
also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21In him the whole structure is joined together and
grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a
dwelling-place for God.

So...Don't go back to live under the law (the Jews)...
Galatians 2:11 But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face, because he
stood self-condemned; 12for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the
Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision
faction. 13And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by
their hypocrisy. 14But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the
gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a
Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" 15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not
Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through
faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by
faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works
of the law. 17But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be
sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18But if I build up again the very things that I
once tore down [i.e., return to the works of the law], then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.
19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with
Christ; 20and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not nullify the
grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

... and don't go back to live like the Gentiles (those apart from the law)
Ephesians 4:17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in
the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of
God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19They have lost all sensitivity and have
abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20That is not
the way you learned Christ! 21For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth
is in Jesus. 22You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and
deluded by its lusts, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with
the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.


Rather, live for Christ
2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all;
therefore all have died. 15And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for
themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
David Suryk © IVCF 2007

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