BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

The Power to Live a New Life by Gloria Copeland How can we experience the power of a new life found in our everyday walk with the Lord? The answer can be found in Romans 6:4: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” I want to draw your attention to the words “even so.” They mean the same thing as “just as.” Just as Jesus was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so are we to walk in newness of life by that same glory. That glory is already in us. In spirit, we have already been resurrected to a level high enough to defeat anything the enemy would bring against us. The Father has enabled us, as believers, to live above the dominion of sin and death. How has He enabled? He gave us a new, reborn spirit and filled us with His Spirit. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Until we were born again and filled with His Spirit, we were held by the things of this natural world. We were dead to God and alive to sin. Now, we have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). We have died to sin and have been raised together with Him (Ephesians 2:5-6). The old sinner that we once were has died. We have become a new creation on the inside (2 Corinthians 5:17). And that new creature lives in the image of Jesus Christ, who is the express image of the Father! Your spirit man has been resurrected with the same new life with which He made Jesus alive. “But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him...” (Ephesians 2:4-5, "Amplified Bible, Classic Edition"). Colossians 2:9-10 ("AMPC") tells us that we have the potential to become fully spiritually mature. "For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]. And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power]." God has given us Himself, His very own nature, His own substance, His life. We call it eternal life. In order to strike your attention, I want to call it resurrection life. You actually have the same new life God gave Jesus when He raised Him from the dead residing on the inside of you. * * * * * article continues on p. 10 * * * * BVOV : 9

• Cover