A New Creation

Chuckle: The worst analogy ever written in a high school essay was . . . "Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze!"

Good Quote: "All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons (new creations). They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!" (2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NLT).

This passage contains one of the most miraculous truths in Scripture. When a person is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, he or she becomes a new creation -- a brand-new person on the inside. By the working of the Holy Spirit, he or she is not the same anymore. Rather, we think differently, speak differently, and act differently. We have a new nature. In the first creation, God brought people into physical existence from nothingness; but in this new creation, he brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

Christians are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated, but are transformed human beings living in an eternal union with Christ. This new relationship with Christ becomes the controlling factor in one's life. When we are converted/saved, it is not the equivalent of turning over a new leave and promising to do better. It is the beginning of a new life under the control of a new Master. As a new creation in Christ, we receive a new nature with a new attitude toward God and life itself. We are no longer driven by the standards of the world, but by the standards of God's Word.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10 NIV). The Message Bible puts it this way: "He (God) creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing."

Notice that our salvation is not the result of doing good deeds. No, our salvation is by grace through faith -- resulting in our recreation. Then, as a natural progression from our rebirth, God expects us to do the work which he has arranged in advance for us to do. As a new creation, we do the work (ministry) of God while empowered by, and under the direction of, his Spirit. "When God's work is done in God's way for God's glory, it will never lack God's supply. God is not obligated to pay for our selfish schemes. He is obligated to support his ministry." --Hudson Taylor

Love, Jerry & Dotse