How to be a New Creation

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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (NIV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

Devotion:

            Becoming a new creation is not an act of will on our part. We come to Christ naked, sinful, and with nothing to offer him in our hands. Christ accepts us just as we are and changes us into new creatures. This is a great mystery of faith. How God accomplishes this in our lives we really have no idea, but we are certain that it happens. We rejoice that we are counted worthy to be changed in this way.

            How are we to behave as new creations in Christ? Verse 18 gives us our direction for living this new life we have been given. We are to be ministers of reconciliation. This means that in both word and deed we are to be examples of how-to live-in Christ. We are to invite everyone we meet into this new relationship that God has provided for us. We are not to judge people and push them away from Christ, but we are to winsomely invite everybody we know or meet into new life with Christ.

            Christians are called to seek the lost sheep of God’s fold and bring them back to the fold of God. In Psalm 23 we hear that “the Lord is my shepherd.” And so he is, but he has appointed us to be under shepherds to seek the lost sheep in the world. Through the work of Jesus on the cross God does not hold our sins against us. Indeed, until the great and terrible judgement day when everyone will be judged for their deeds, we can become new creations. So, if you are willing submit yourself to Christ and be changed into new creatures.

            Let us be willing to accept this new life. Let us pray that God would change us from what we are into what we were meant to be.

Prayer:

            Lord, make us new creations in you today. Help us to live out the promise of our re-creation in you. Help us to be channels of reconciliation of your new life to others. Let us live lives of virtue and kindness toward those we meet each day. Heal us of our sin and open our hearts toward your love. Help us to live as those expecting one day to be absent from the body and present with our Lord.

Amen

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