STEP ONE – The basics

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What happened when you were saved?

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

When you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith came into your heart. Faith simply means to trust Jesus. In short, the gospel tells us that we are lost sinners and that God wants to give us forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free (grace) gift. Salvation is a grace act of God by virtue of Christ’s accomplished work on the cross. To receive these priceless gifts, you need to believe the gospel.

When you’ve made the decision to place your trust in Jesus and repented of your sins, you were saved, and the Holy Spirit gave you a new birth. This is what the Bible calls “being born again” (John 3:3), when you receive a new spiritual nature from God (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus took the punishment that we deserved for our sins to give us the new life that we couldn’t earn. This is called “grace.” Grace is the unmerited favour of God.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Your new spiritual life has been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). The Bible calls you a saint (Ephesians 1:1), holy (1 Peter 2:9), righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), a child of God (John 1:12), part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession (1 Peter 2:9), a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), a friend of Jesus (John 15:15), a fellow heir of Christ (Romans 8:17), etc.

Study theses scriptures above. What does it mean to you? _______________________________________

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See if you can find more scriptures on what your identity is, as a new creation in Christ:

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Jesus did not only come to give us moral renovation, but He came to make us a complete new spiritual creation.

Describe how Jesus changed your life? _______________________________________________________

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What is the nature of this new life?

The new life that God gives is different from every other kind of life. Peter says that we have been made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Jesus was different from other men in His very nature and we partake of His nature (spiritually) by escaping the world’s decay and rising above sinful desires. When we are born again, we receive a new nature by which we do not perish with the world.

As partakers of the divine nature, we do not have to follow our old sinful nature anymore. At salvation, our old nature is defeated, and we receive a new divine nature that desires the things of God. We love what He loves, and we hate what He hates (Galatians 5:22; 1 John 4:4).

As partakers of the divine nature, we are no longer slaves of sin (Romans 6:6), sin has no dominion over us anymore (Romans 6:14), no temptation has overtaken us (1 Corinthians 10:13) and we have overcome the world (John 16:33).

1 John 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

As partakers of the divine nature, we are made part of God’s family (John 1:12) and are called sons and daughters of the Almighty Father (2 Corinthians 6:18). We are placed (baptised) by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13), we are like living stones being built up as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5) and we have the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).

Study theses scriptures above. What does it mean to you? _______________________________________

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What questions do you have? Please write them down:

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