New Life in Christ: Transformative and Purpose-Filled

July 25, 2025/Ayrian Yasar/
Photo Credit: Gian Cescon / Unsplash

Photo Credit: Gian Cescon / Unsplash

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Spring is one of my favorite seasons. In particular, I enjoy being surprised by our elm tree. It looks very scraggly in the winter and then, all of a sudden, tiny, new green leaves emerge. And before you know it, the tree is covered in a canopy of bright, green, and glorious foliage, which provides much appreciated shade and beauty. The new life that is seen each year is a picture of how lovely the new life we have in Jesus Christ is.

The Lord is the one who possesses and gifts life to all creation.

The first verses of the Bible are overflowing with life. In Genesis we learn that the Lord is the one who possesses and gifts life to all creation: plants, animals, and all creation find their existence by his Word and will. The particular care God takes of gifting life to man is noted in Genesis 2:7, “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” And the breath of God is that which gives this life.

Unfortunately, man turns from this life-giving trajectory established by God, the one who is life, and decides instead to entertain a friendship with a murderer, the evil one (John 8:44). This rebellion plunges all mankind into a state of living-death; while we may be walking, talking, breathing, and thinking, we are spiritually dead, separated from the life of God that knows no darkness, deterioration, or death.

We see the signs of death everywhere around us.

Life after separation from God culminates in a physical death and final separation from God in judgment. Every day then is “lived” as a walk toward death, each day is a bit closer to closing the deal:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” (Eph. 2:1-2)

We see the signs of death everywhere around us: in the turmoil of relationships, severance of friendships, corruption of what is good, brutality to others, oppression of the weak, hatred of neighbors, disease-riddled bodies and minds, abuse and misuses of God’s creation, and futility in our dreams and pursuits.

In fact, the frustration that we feel is well expressed by the author of Ecclesiastes when he writes,

So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.” (Eccl. 2:17)

If this living-death is all we have to look forward to, then our past, present, and future are hopeless and futile, a cursed existence.

God, who is life, has made a way through Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God that this state of death is not where he has left us! Romans 5:17 states,

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

God, who is life, has made a way. Those who have turned from him can be brought near and given new life—true spiritual and one day physical life—earned by Jesus Christ on their behalf.

We have this spiritual new life by the work of the Spirit in us.

Through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, we are given this new spiritual, eternal life that will never deteriorate but will become more and more evident in changing us. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans,

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (Rom. 8:11)

This spiritual new life is transformative and eternal and will culminate in a new lasting-forever-body and dwelling in a new creation where we will be free of deaths of all kinds. We will experience the joy of perfect fellowship with the Giver of Life, God himself, and all others who have been given the Holy Spirit. This is a new life where we experience the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the righteousness of Christ, and a new purpose of glorifying and enjoying God forever. This new life is truly living.

This article was originally published in Beautiful Christian Life’s April 2025 monthly newsletter, “New Life.”