“Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
A New Year A New Creation.
2015…Who’d have thought that there would be a 2015?
Here we are starting a new year. It is always an exciting time. You can do everything again for a first time in the new year.
I was also raised eating a tradition new years feast of blackeyed peas, collard greens, and hog jow, with all the trimmings also. A meal for good luck in the new year.
The truth of the matter is we can all have something better than good luck in the new year. How amazing would it be to actually be a new creation in 2015? To have the old life be gone and a shiny new life in Jesus Christ!
This is what happens to us when we are in Christ!!! We are MADE NEW and He is continually renewing us!
What does it mean to be IN CHRIST? To have completely given up our wills and surrendered our lives to HIM. To truly have made Him LORD (we submit completely to Him) and SAVIOR (we realize we can't save ourselves and trust that HE will save us).
Those who are in Christ are a new creation, and now we must LIVE as such! It is so easy to fall back and live in the sinful ways that we were before we were in Christ, but Jesus has so much more planned for us… He wants so much more for us! This new life is wonderful and exciting and it is ours if we are in HIM. Let us no longer look back to 2014 or the “old life.” We can relate to 2014 to before we new our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us commit together as a people of God to truly live 2015 as new creations!
As we are this new creation in Christ Jesus, let everyone who sees us see the JOY that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Cor 5:17-18
