So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the primitive passed by. Lo! there has come new!
2 Corinthians 5: 17, Concordant New Testament
Each January first, millions of people resolve to make things better. They vow to somehow do things differently than they have the year before. While some succeed, many others fail in the resolutions they make. The question was posed the other day during a broadcast sermon, what makes a successful New Year's resolution? Is it luck? Is it the resolve of the person making the commitment? I will mention for those who will resolve to hit the gym for the new year, that it takes basically thirty days to develop a new habit. This I know from experience. Some years ago I was that person resolving to get to the gym more often. I'm proud to say that I was successful in my resolution. Still, others never even get that far. Weighed down by life and responsibility, they fizzle out after only a few weeks. They are left to wonder...if only. Someone I know once said New Years resolutions were akin to second chances. Another shot at getting it right. While this might or might not be true, everyone wants and deserves a second chance. One thing that is common in our human condition is that we are always seeking a chance to redo something. Be it a bad decision or life situation, we often feel that a second chance will serve us well. Well here's some good news, God feels the same way. For it is the Lord who is the creator of the ultimate second chance. The chance of life in the midst of death. The chance of happiness out of sorrow. As Christians, we do well to understand the significance of what the Lord has granted to us. We're told that we were indeed once sinners {Romans 3:23}. I love how the apostle Paul phrased this passage for us, that we were once sinners. Yes, we were once sinners, but through the second chance of the grace and love of the Father, we no longer count ourselves as sinners. That old man has been put to death once and for all beside Christ Jesus at the cross. Make no mistake, we were in need of a second chance. Yet God, knowing our sin condition, never gave up on us. Instead, He sacrificed His one and only Son that we might be saved {2 Corinthians 5:21}. I say "might" be saved because all may deserve that second opportunity, but there are those who never accept the free gift of the Father.
Knowing this, that our old humanity was crucified together with him, that the body of sin may be nullified, for us by no means to be still slaving for sin, for one who dies has been justified from sin. Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also, having perceived that Christ, having been roused from the dead, is no longer dying. Death is lording it over Him no longer, for in that He died, He died to sin once for all time, yet in that He is living, He is living to God. Thus you also, reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6-11, Concordant New Testament
One of the most famous scripture on second chances can be found in John 3:16. That God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, that whomever believes in His Son would not perish but have life everlasting. Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? Read on to verse 17. God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him MIGHT be saved. I'm careful to point this scripture out to those who bring up John 3:16. There will indeed be those who refuse Jesus and the second chance which He offers to us. The question then becomes, will you accept the gift offered by our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus? Will you accept the opportunity presented to you? I am convinced that the desire of the Lord is that all would come to know His Son {John 17:21}. Yet God never has and never will compel someone to accept what He has offered them. This is our decision and ours alone. Some might feel led to come to Jesus while others will be more skeptical. I have seen both sides of that fence. For me, being in the presence of my Lord and Savior made my decision a no brainer. I chose Jesus. Yet before I chose Jesus, He chose me. Jesus chose to willingly go to the cross that I would receive my second chance. It is Jesus who gave Himself for me. There is nothing you have ever done which Jesus will not wash away if you will accept the offer He gives you. He is your second chance.
For thus God loves the world, so that He gives His only-begotten Son, that everyone who is believing in His should not be perishing, but may be having life eonian. For God does not dispatch His Son into the world that He should be judging the world, but that the world may be saved through Him.
John 3: 16-17, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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