Newness of Life

Originally Written on February 26, 2009

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.
Romans 6:1-4


Could you imagine living in a prison cell for 8 years? Everyday, you wake up and put on the same clothes as everyone else. There are three meals a day prepared for you, and during visits, a vending machine is prized like a steak from Outback. Visitors come for weekly visits, but other than the guards and staff, there is little contact with the “free world.” Not to mention, there is a great separation between the two worlds. Actually, two 12-foot-tall fences with razor, barbed-wire defeat any hopes of escape.

About 4 and a half years ago, I was privileged to be connected with a man inside the prison through the Men of Valor prison ministry in Nashville, Tennessee. I did not know what to expect when I walked into the prison for the first time. Actually, I was claustrophobic, and the guards, metal detector, and sound of the two heavy-weight, metal doors frightened me. I knew I was on foreign soil even though still in Nashville. As I walked to the table where I was matched up with a numbered inmate, I realized the guy across the table looked so much like me. He was 25, and I was 24. Other than his clothes, I would have never pictured him as “one of them.”

He had made a mistake in his life. He sinned against God and man and was doing his time to pay for the consequences of his actions. Just this Tuesday, his sentence was up. After visiting him weekly over the past few years, I stood behind the barbed-wire fence and watched him walk into the building. With guards on both sides of him, I saw the radiance of his smile, the joy of his heart, and the first step in the newness of life. He even had brand-new clothes on. He left all the old ones behind. I waited as he cleared the portal, and we embraced for the first time as a free men. He had not seen a world without fences or guards. He had been confined but could now run free through the parking lot. He had been separated from family and friends, and now they could freely embrace and shed tears of joy and laughter.

The first thing he wanted was real food. His family and mine celebrated this amazing day, and I sat back and laughed within as I saw him devour an appetizer, gourmet burger and fries, and a huge piece of chocolate cake. It was a joyful day that I will never forget. I believe he has learned his lesson and will never return back to prison. There will always be risks involved, and the consequences of sin should never be diminished. However, every man needs hope.

There are so many people simply “doing time” these days. They are easy to recognize. They are confined only to this world in which we live, and they never give thought to eternity. They are entrapped and enslaved by sin without any hope in the world.

Unless… Jesus, who entered our world, lived a righteous life and died an atoning death, rescues them. I am thankful today that I am more than a number within the 6 billion-plus people in the world. The Lord knows them that are his (2 Timothy 2:19c). I am thankful Jesus and men who have preached the gospel didn’t overlook me as “one of them.” I am thankful that God initiates contact with sinners and delivers them from sin. I am thankful that Jesus wasn’t afraid of the shame and reproach He would bear on the sinner’s behalf, although he despised it (Hebrews 12:2). I am thankful He fulfilled Proverbs 17:15 which says, “He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.” I am thankful that Jesus is the door of salvation. I am thankful for the new clothes of salvation. May we ever wear a garment of praise to Jesus. I am thankful for His forgiveness and warm embrace which is peace to the soul. I am thankful for the good things God has given us to explore. I am thankful to be free…

Charles Wesley eloquently portrayed the joy of salvation and the newness of life in the last three stanzas of his hymn, “And Can It Be that I Should Gain:”

He left His Father's throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace,
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race:'
Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Walking in Newness of Life,
Brian Johnson