Philippians 1:8-14 “For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence…
This ministry of reconciliation says that even though your past is one of separation from God, your new life in Christ is one of reunion with God! Your old life of the flesh is dead, your new life in Christ is a life of the Spirit. You no longer have to walk around with guilt and condemnation, but – through Jesus Christ – you walk in righteousness (right standing with God).
When Jesus met with Nicodemus, he told him, as us today: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
In Romans 6:4, Paul reinforces this message when he says:
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”