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“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This is one of those verses I claim on faith. Which I do, most of the time, without trouble. I don't question whether I am truly a new creation. I know I am. But if I am not careful, I can find myself wondering, "how am any different?" - what "old" is gone and what "new" has come? Sometimes I don't see much difference between who I was, say, 15 years ago and who I am today. Sometimes I worry I am not "new enough" yet.
But the reality is that the new "has come." It is already here. There is no process of becoming new or waiting for the arrival of this newness or wondering if I have made it yet. I am already new. And to live with the knowledge I am already new means so much less striving and so much less pressure. It is to live with freedom. It is to live with strength to be able to look at old, negative thoughts, behavior patterns, and emotional baggage and think, "What are you? I certainly don't need you. In fact, I don't even know you. You are not a part of the new me. Go away."
I am as new as I am going to get this side of eternity. I don't need to be any newer, I just need to fully embrace the new and improved me I already am in Christ Jesus. I don't need to look back either, questioning if the old is gone or not. It is gone. Christ took it 2000 years ago. Today, I am going to live like it is my first day. I end with the words from a great song from one of my favorite bands:
Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everbody's watching you now
Everbody waits for you now
What happens next?
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right were you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here.
Dare You to Move by Switchfoot
1 comment:
I love verses like this! It is truly a verse to claim for those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior! It directly goes hand in hand with John Chapter 3 where Jesus talks to Nicademus about the new birth. You pose the struggle that Paul constantly talks about in his Epistles, about the struggle between the old man and the new. Ephesians 4:20-32 is scripture that I try to apply daily when I am dealing with that struggle. It is particularly a hard struggle for those who are saved later on in life and have decades of sin to overcome, such as myself. Romans Chapter 7 is a great example of how Paul talks about the struggles between the old flesh and the new man.....even Paul had the same struggles!
Keep blogging! It is a great blessing and God Bless.
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