April 9, 2024

This past Sunday, I did a message on Romans 6:4 where Paul says that we can live “new lives.” What a great message to proclaim! We don’t have to be the way we’ve been. We don’t have to live the way we’ve lived. We don’t have to continue to be bound by the chains that have bound us. We can be NEW people, DIFFERENT people, CHANGED people. I tried to hammer home the point that Christ didn’t come from heaven to earth, live among us, die on the cross, and then rise from the dead to leave us the way we were. The disciples lived differently after the Spirit fell upon them. So can we.
It’s interesting how this message is not one that many people want to receive. A lot of folks don’t want to live differently. They simply want to be forgiven over and over again for the way they are. They LOVE grace. But they don’t embrace repentance. They don’t want to live changed lives. They don’t want to walk in the power of the resurrection. They want to simply be the Walking Dead. Hear my heart. I’m not saying that we can live perfect lives. But I believe with all my heart that we can live VICTORIOUS lives. Lives that show the evidence of Christ living in us.
Take a look at Zacchaeus. If there was ever a man who experienced the great grace of God, it was he. Jesus picked HIM, a notorious cheat and oppressing tax collector to go home with. There probably wasn’t a more undeserving person in the crowd. But look how Zacchaeus responded to the wonderful grace of Jesus. Did he say, “Thanks for all you’ve done for me, now let me get back to my lying and cheating ways”? No. He said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” That’s called REPENTANCE. That’s called MAKING AMENDS. That’s called responding to the great gift of God’s grace with a life that honors that gift. Zacchaeus, forgiven but unchanged, wasn’t going to impact anyone. But Zacchaeus, forgiven and completely different, caught EVERYONE’S attention. Jesus didn’t go home with Zacchaeus, or with any of us, for that matter, so we could still be dead men walking. He does it so we can have what He had in mind all along. New lives! That’s God’s Word for us today.