"And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view ... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ ... not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us." 2 Corinthians 5:15-20 (NIV)
In a letter to the believers in Corinth, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul wrote that because Christ had died and rose for them, they should live for Christ and they should view each other differently. As believers in Christ they were new creatures, the old persons had passed away and they were now new people. The Lord God had reconciled them unto Himself through Christ, and they were now ambassadors to the world for Christ.
Unfortunately for us, when we accepted Christ as our personal savior, our old sinful nature did not cease to exist. There is a constant battle going on within us, between our sinful fleshly nature and our spiritual nature, as it was within Paul. (Romans 7:15-23) We simply are no longer controlled by our sinful nature, we now have a choice. When we focus on Christ and The Word of God, we can choose to behave in a Christ-like manner. When we submit to The Lord and focus on Christ, then we can resist the devil and sinful temptations. (James 4:7) However, when we choose to focus on worldly pleasures and the desires of the flesh, our old sinful nature influences us. We must choose to do the right thing. We are ambassadors for Christ, and we should choose wisely.
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