New life

Everyone loves having new things and the miracle of new life is always exciting to us. New life in Christ is always miraculous.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

What’s your idea of new? There is a difference between buying something brand new or something used, but new to us, such as a new phone, new clothes or a new car. Either way, we expect it to be ready to meet the new life it will have with us.

If we bought a new suitcase, we would not expect it to be full of another persons junk. Yet that’s how so many people approach new life in Christ.

We become ‘NEW’ creatures when we come to Christ, not simply cleaned up versions of what we used to be. The old should have passed away, it’s dead and buried, but so often we start digging our old self up again.

We have the new thing which has come, but we can still be weighed down by the old junk we carry around if we keep returning to our old life. We have to put off the old completely if we are to take on the new entirely.

that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. – Ephesians 4:22-24.

Our conflict only comes when we try to use the new to mask the old. We can’t keep the old and take on the new. That would be like wearing your new coat over the old one, you will only feel restricted and frustrated.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:3-5

The new life God gives us comes with joy and a hope which is alive. It is not of this world, so it cannot be tainted or destroyed by things of this world. It will never die, it won’t even fade. If you’ve taken anything back on from your old life, shake it off, return to Christ and take on the new life He gives.