WARNING: This is long, but I hope you enjoy. If you take the law off Christians, then what is left to restrain them? Won’t they just run off into sin and selfish living? I saw this question asked in a statement this morning and it reminded me of questions I used to ask myself. The life of Jesus here on earth was Gods way of revealing truth to us. For the believer, there is now a new force inside of us that is far more effective than that old external law. “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 (KJV) Did you know that when you were born again a miracle took place inside of you? To understand the new creation, first we must realize that it is in fact a creation, something created by God. John 1:13 tells us that this new birth was brought about by the will of God. We did not inherit the new nature, nor did we decide to re-create ourselves anew, nor did God simply clean up our old nature; He created something entirely fresh and unique. The new creation is completely new, brought about from nothing, just as the whole universe was created by God, from nothing. Only the Creator could accomplish something this great, a miracle. Second, “old things have passed away.” The “old” refers to everything that is part of our old nature—natural pride, love of sin, reliance on works, and our former opinions, habits and passions. Most significantly, what we loved has passed away, especially the supreme love of self and with it self-righteousness, self-promotion, and self-justification. The new creature looks outwardly toward Christ instead of inwardly toward self. The old things died, nailed to the cross with our sin nature. Along with the old passing away, “the new has come!” Old, dead things are replaced with new things, full of life and the glory of God. The newborn soul delights in the things of God and abhors the things of the world and the flesh. Our purposes, feelings, desires, and understandings are fresh and different. We see the world differently. The Bible seems to be a new book, and though we may have read it before, there is a beauty about it which we never saw before. There are new feelings toward all people—a new kind of love toward family and friends, a new compassion never before felt for enemies, and a new love for ALL mankind. The things we once loved, we now detest. The sin we once held onto, we now desire to put away forever. We “put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9), and put on the “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). What about the Christian who continues to sin? There is a difference between continuing to sin and continuing to live in sin. No one reaches sinless perfection in this life, but we allow love to overtake us day by day, sinning less and hating it more each time we fail. Yes, we still sin, but unwillingly and less and less frequently as we mature. Our new self hates the sin that still has a hold on us. The difference is that the new creation is no longer a slave to sin, as we formerly were. We are now freed from sin and it no longer has power over us (Romans 6:6-7). Now we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. We now have a choice to choose love. You have been created after the likeness of God! Have a great Sunday!
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 14:10:10 +0000
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