2 Corinthians 5: 16 - 19 NKJV
It is the custom of many in those final days of each year to step back and take stock of not only the year past but also what is to come. Some vow resolutions to do better or to achieve more in the year to come while others seek some spiritual guidance which may somehow make the upcoming year better than the last. Any way you look at it, what we are ultimately seeking in the year ahead is...change. Change from something, or someone, that we've decided we no longer needed. However, I'll always be the first one to tell you that sometimes change isn't really a good thing. What is it that we're running from? Come to think of it, do we really need to change at all? Sure, it's good to take stock of where we've been and where it is we're going, I have no problem with that if that's all we're doing. However, I began to question when someone vows a radical life change. I'm guessing that I should never assume that others out there see religion, Christ and God the same as I do. What's the old saying of what happens when we assume? You get the idea. That being said, I'll take a step back to explain just how I see these new years predictions. See, I used to be like most of the run of the mill christians out there. I was that good christian soldier who walked into church each sunday, did my share praying and gave when I was asked to. For all intents and purposes, I was living the christian life...or was I? Not too long ago, a dear pastor friend of mine opened my mind to something I had been missing all along in my christian walk. What I had been missing all along was Christ Jesus. Oh sure, I knew that Jesus bled and died on the cross to wipe away my sins, but beyond that Jesus just someone who I knew by name. I had no personal connection with the man who gave Himself for me {2 Corinthians 5:21}. What did I care, I was a christian man. Each new year I did the same thing so many do, I vowed to pray harder, pray more and to give till it hurt. I did this because even though I was a christian, I was still but a sinner saved by my Lords grace...and I needed to change.
5For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 5 - 11 NKJV
That was the essence of my thinking as each year drew to a close. I needed to change, I needed to do better than I had been doing. How could I, a sinner, ever be in the presence of God. I mean, God hates sin right? It seemed I was doomed to a life on the spinning wheel of forgiveness and self condemnation. I say self condemnation because that's excatly what it is. God had never been condemning me for my past at all {Romans 8:1}. The only condemnation I had came from my perpetual accuser who we all know so well {1 John 4:6}. Indeed, that very same cat who deceived Eve into taking a bite of the forbidden fruit had been doing the same thing to me all along! Not just me, everyone around me! I came to realize that I was not condemned but loved. We are told that God is love, so how can He have anything less for His own children {1 John 4:8}? God loves me, and I don't need to change! God loves you, and you don't need to change! I know that not everyone will be able to handle that truth of Christ Jesus as I have. Of course, it took me awhile to come to grips with the truth that Christ Jesus is alive and well within me {Galations 2:20}. Knowing this I will ask you, does Jesus need to change anything about Himself? Can you see now just why I no longer need some new years resolution to somehow change what Christ Jesus has created in me? Now, I have no issue with those resolutions aimed at curtailing certain behaviors, for I believe that this is not changing what Jesus has brought into us. I believe that instead of so many new years resolutions that we should instead glory in who it is we are in Christ Jesus. Satan can keep the change!
20“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
~Scott~
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