We read here the declaration of God the father concerning His intent for all who would come to Him through faith in His Son, Jesus. When one comes to God through faith in Christ, everything becomes new.
"Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new." - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CEV)
Queen Victoria once paid a visit to a paper mill. During her tour, she was taken into the rag sorting shop where men were employed to pick out rags from the refuse of the city of London. Upon inquiring what was done with this dirty mess of rags, the queen was told that it would be used to make the finest sort of white paper. Sometime after the tour, the queen received a package of fine white stationary, featuring the queen’s likeness for a watermark, which, the accompanying letter explained, had been made from the very rags that she had seen on her tour of the paper mill.
That is what God has done for us through Christ. He takes us, as filthy as we are, cleans us up, stamps the likeness of His Son on us, and makes us brand new. Upon receiving Christ, we are as different from what we were before, as pure white paper is made from filthy rags.
What’s new about the one who has come to God through faith in Christ?
1. We have entered into a new relationship.
When Donna and I committed ourselves to each other in marriage, we entered into a new relationship which would forever change our lives. In much the same way, when we commit ourselves to Christ, we enter into a relationship which will forever change our lives. And what kind of relationship is that? A love relationship! God’s dealings with His children is on the basis of love.
God’s mercy is His forgiving love. God’s providential working is His caring love. God’s kindness is His understanding love. God’s will for our lives is His unerring love. Christ’s sacrifice for our sins is God’s proven love.
The hardest thing in the Bible to understand is not Daniel’s 70 weeks, or Ezekials prophecy about Gog & Magog, or the book of Revelation, but the message of John 3:16.
Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky! Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song!
2. We have experienced new life. Without Jesus, we are dead.
"We were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses." - Ephesians 2:5 (Amplified)
There is an old horror movie, "Night Of The Living Dead," which pretty well illustrates how most people are going through life. Apart from Christ, like the zombies in that movie, people simply are mindlessly plodding along through life, moaning and groaning.
All kidding aside, apart from Christ, people may have the appearance of being alive, but the Bible tells us that they are really dead! Being separated from God by sin, we are spiritually dead, totally disconnected from the creator and source of all life, almighty God, Himself! But through faith in Christ, we are brought into personal relationship with God, which results in our being spiritually alive! And it is only when I am spiritually alive, that I can truly be alive in every other way!
Acceptance of Christ brings life that is spiritual, eternal, and abundant!
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."
- John 5:24 (NASB)
"I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)." - John 10:10 (Amplified)
"And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life." - 1 John 5:11-12 (NLT)
A young children’s Sunday School class was asked the question by their teacher, "Where is heaven?" One little boy answered, "Heaven is in our home, now that daddy has become a Christian."
Indeed, salvation is not so much about me one day living in the presence of God; but about the presence of God living in me today! Through inviting Christ into my life, I have experienced new life!
3. We have received a new name.
When one gives their life to Christ, the sinner becomes a saint. He is no longer a child of the Devil, but a child of God. Once described as an "alien," he is now called a "citizen." once he was at odds with God, now he is a fellow laborer, and a servant.
When a man and a woman are married, there is a part in the ceremony where they each agree to take the other. After this, the minister pronounces them "husband and wife." And from that day forward, the bride takes on a new name.
God the Father spoke to Jesus, the bridegroom, concerning me one day, and asked, "Savior, would you have this sinner?" To which Jesus responded, "I will." he then spoke to me and asked, "Sinner, will you have this Savior?" And when I said, "I will," God the Father pronounced that a life changing relationship had been established and declared that by virtue of that new relationship, I now had a new name. No longer am I a child of the Devil, I am a child of God!
4. We have been given a new nature.
While I was born with a sinful nature, a natural tendency toward doing what is wrong in the sight of God. This is all I know. But now that I have trusted Jesus as my Savior, I have been given a divine nature, by virtue of the Holy Spirit’s presence within me.
"When you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit." - Ephesians 1:13 (NLT)
Peter explains that as the believer learns more about his new self through the promises of God’s Word, he can learn how to allow the divine nature he has been given through the presence of the Holy Spirit to direct his life and enable him to be more and more like Jesus.
"We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world." - 2 Peter 1:3-4 (CEV)
Yes, God loves us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. By the new nature He places within us by virtue of His Holy Spirit, we can change our daily lives to be more like Christ.
Someone once asked the famed sculptor, Michelangelo, how he could take a shapeless block of stone and sculpt from it something as beautiful as his lovely statue of David. "It is easy," he replied, "I just chiseled away what was not needed until the image emerged."
That is what spiritual growth in the life of the Christian is all about. Letting the Holy Spirit chisel away all that is of the sinful nature so that the divine nature we have received through faith in Christ may emerge.
5. We share in a new victory.
Like the little boy who jumped up and down shouting, "We’ve won, we’ve won!" at a football game - though he was not a member of the team or of the school represented by the team - we too can rejoice in a victory with which we associate ourselves. We can live in joy and triumph. We can shout, "We’ve won!" because through faith in Christ, we are associated with the victory of Calvary and the empty tomb.
"(God) took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah." - Ephesians 2:5-6 (The Message)
6. We enjoy a new standing.
If a person has no "social standing," it means they do not have the means to meet the requirements of acceptance in social circles. Likewise, apart from Christ, we had no "standing" with God. We did not have the means necessary to meet the requirements for acceptance that God demands. But through Christ, all that was needed has been provided. I have standing with God. I am no longer rejected by Him. I am accepted by Him.
7. We look forward to a new destiny.
Without Christ, eternal death and destruction faced us. We were without hope. But with Christ, all is changed. Now we have a living hope.
"All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay." - 1 Peter 1:3-5 (NLT)
(Song-"I Can Only Imagine")
