CHRISTIAN
LIVING, NEW LIFE

WHEN you move into a new house that someone else lived in, it’s your house, even though the owners are no longer there. The old people who were there may have been dirty, despicable, and filthy or unkempt and unclean. The house may have reflected who they were, but now you’ve purchased the home and you are a clean person. You are concerned about removing the dust, sweeping the floor, cleaning the dishes, and painting the walls. You move into that house and because you are there, the house takes on a whole different appearance. The grass is cut. The dishes are clean. The carpet is vacuumed. Why? Because a new person has moved into an old house.

Well, before you met Christ, the old person was living in that house called your body. But now that Jesus has moved in, it’s the same body but you’ve got a new resident. This new resident is holy, clean, pure, and righteous. So even though He’s living in that old house, He can make it look good. Even though He’s living in that old house, He can paint it up. Even though He’s living in that old house, He can clean it up. He can fix those carpets and hang those drapes and straighten out everything that’s wrong in your life. Why? Not because your bodily house has changed but because somebody new has moved in. Christ has moved in. So stop keeping Him from painting and fixing up that old place so that you can live life as He meant it to be lived.109

[New Life in Christ; Transformation; Sanctification]

Rom. 6:21–22