Nov. 24, 2024

New Beginnings

Primary Text:  Romans 6:2–4             

1)  A New Thing

Isaiah 43:18–19:  “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” 

DQ 1) Do you dwell on the past far too much?  Why?

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

2)  New Life

Romans 6:2–4:  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  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. 

Colossians 2:13–14:  When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.  

DQ 2) How does Jesus impart new life to every believer?

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

3)  New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17:  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Galatians 6:14–15:  May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.  

DQ 3) How are people made into a “new creation” by the work of Christ?

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

4)  A New Heart  

Ezekiel 11:19–20:  I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 36:25–27:  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Psalm 51:10–12:  Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  

DQ 4) Has your heart been made new by Jesus?  

DQ 5) In what ways do you still need newness of heart?  

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

5)  A New Mind

Ephesians 4:22–24:  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:9–10:  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Romans 12:2:  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  

DQ 6) Do you think as God wants you to think?  

DQ 7) In what way does your mind still need renewal?  

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________