Newness of life

I think that just about everyone is trying to "walk in newness of life." 

That phrase, "newness of life," is from Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans 6:4, ESV).

People are trying to walk in newness of life via education, via diets and exercise, via cosmetics, via protest marches, via drugs, via confidence-building techniques and meditation, via positive-thinking or wokeness or putting faith in some promise featured by a prosperity preacher. In fact, via a thousand things.

Everyone wants it (new life) and everyone is willing to pay for or in some way commit time and effort to whatever promises it. 

When Jesus began his ministry, his message was that the reign of God was at hand. God was about to demonstrate his Lordship again. Since that time Christians have been saying and singing, "He reigns!" Meanwhile others, like the Pharisee Nicodemus in the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John, have kept saying, "Hmmm, I'm just not seeing it."

Jesus' answer to Nicodemus was, "If you want to see it, you must be born again."

"Newness of life" is what follows from this new birth. Whenever you find a New Testament imperative about holiness, about living differently, righteously, that passage is elucidating what is meant by "newness of life."

It is an irreducible part of what Christians preach. 

One of my goals in reading the Bible, or in prayer, or worshipping the Lord with my brothers and sisters, is to clear away the debris that keeps me from walking that walk. But any promise of newness of life that doesn't begin with recognizing the rightful king (He reigns!) is a dead end.