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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Romans 6:4-6
When Henry Hill was arrested in 1980, he was offered an opportunity. If he would testify against his former Mafia associates, he would not be held accountable for his own involvement in a number of crimes. Once the FBI played wiretaps recordings for him proving that his Mafia associates intended to have him killed, Hill took the deal. He testified in a number of trials and at least fifty people were convicted in large part because of his inside information. Once the trials were complete Hill and his family were placed in the Witness Protection Program and given new identities. But despite the new life he was offered, Hill did not change his ways. In 1987 he was convicted on a federal cocaine trafficking charge and kicked out of witness protection.
When we are saved, God gives us eternal life, but He also gives us the ability to live differently in this world than we did before. What we once could not do—live in a way that is obedient and pleasing to God—is now possible because we have a new identity. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). However having the new identity as children of God does not guarantee that we will live up to it. Only as we walk under the direction and control of the Holy Spirit will we actually conduct ourselves as the new people God has made us to be and leave the old ways behind.
