THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Lesson 1

CHANGED BY OBEDIENCE

Now that you have been baptized (immersed) into Christ, you are changed! Your life has been changed; your reasons for living have changed. Your relationships with God and man have changed. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

What are you, now that you have been baptized (immersed) into Christ? You are a child of God. When you believed in Christ, repented of your past sins, confessed the name of Jesus Christ, and were baptized (immersed) into Christ, you became a Christian. That means you belong to Christ, and you can wear His name. Christ is the way to God. Jesus said:

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:6).

As a Christian, you have entered into Christ Who is the way to God. Because you are in Christ, you are a part of Christ's body, which is the church.

"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:22-23).

To be in Christ is to be in His church.

The Church is God's house, or God's family. Paul wrote to the preacher Timothy that he might "know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15). The church belongs to Christ; the church belongs to God. The church is made up of people who have obeyed Jesus, and they belong to Jesus. They also belong to God. In John 17:10, when Jesus prayed to God, He said everything that belonged to God also belonged to Him. The church is "God's people," "God's house." This means that the church is God's family, and that you are now a child of God.

What blessings are yours in God's family! You have God as your heavenly Father and Christ as your older brother. All other members of the church of Christ are your brothers and sisters. You are now a member of the great spiritual family of God, the church. You are a child of God. Things can never be the same again!

You became a child of God through obedience to the gospel of Christ, which is God's power to save. The apostle Paul wrote:

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentiles." (Romans 1:16)

You believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

Those who believed in Christ, the Son of God, are blessed; you have believed in Christ. You have repented of your past sins. Jesus said: "I tell; you, no! But unless you repent, you will all perish" (Luke 13:3). To repent is to turn; it means you have changed your will about sin and living in it; you have changed your mind because you now believe in Christ, and you have turned from sin to Christ. The Bible says:

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)

You have confessed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. The Bible says:

"But what does it say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:8-10)

Jesus said: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also Acknowledge him before my Father in heaven" (Matthew 10:32).

You have been baptized (immersed) into Christ. "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Galatians 3:27). This means you have obeyed Christ, who said "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). The Bible says:

"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." (Romans 6:3-6)

You are a child of God; you have been baptized (immersed) into Christ. You are in the church of Christ. The gospel, God's power to save, was first preached as reality on Pentecost, following Christ's resurrection from the dead (see Acts 2). Those who heard that sermon and believed in Christ asked: "What shall we do?" The preacher of God said:

"Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)

"Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:41-42)

"Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47)

You have believed and repented, you have been baptized (immersed), and you have been added to the church-the same church-as these people. The Bible says:

"And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21).

You have believed that Christ is the Son of God; you have repented (turned); you have confessed Christ; you have been baptized (immersed) into Christ. You are a child of God; you are a Christian; you are a member of Christ's church. The church is the house, or family, of God; the family is the church.

As a child of God, you now have your Father in heaven; you have Christ as your Lord and your Savior. He is also your brother, because both of you have the same Father, and all the other children of God in the family, the church, are your brothers and sisters.

Children of God do not think, talk, act, or live like other people in the world. Those people do not follow Christ. You are no longer like them. You are a child of God; you are a Christian. Christians are different from people in the world who live in sin.