Praise him – Day 5

So many recorded events in the Bible have as a common theme: newness or renewal of circumstances, particularly of people. We read of this for the first time in Genesis when God creates light to dispel the darkness. It created the platform for new life: plants, seeds, animals, birds, marine life and on the sixth day the creature created in God’s image – humankind.

The fall, however, infected the eternal brand-new creation; its completeness and perfection was essentially flawed. The highlight of God’s creation – humankind – was particularly affected. They were banished from God’s presence. Henceforth envy, sin, imperfection, shame, blame-shifting, death and mortality would be the consequences of their disobedience.

But God was not caught unprepared by these events. He took the initiative to restore his image in humankind and to let them live again in relationship with him. In Christ he made provision for a new, eternal life with Him. How? “ … 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” (2 Corinthians 5:19). What a completely new approach: Someone – the sovereign God – chose to restore a relationship with people who exchanged a relationship with their Maker for a relationship with their dubious selfish ego!

With this reconciliation two new things occur: You now belong to Christ, and you are a new person, a new creature. Romans 6:4,11 describes the rebirth as a death knell to sin and rising to live a new life for God in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul sums up these events: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!”

How people in Christ live their lives now or how dedicated they are in serving the Lord is no longer judged by the rules and laws they obey, but how they let themselves be led by Christ through the new way of the Spirit (Romans 7:6) and how obedient people are to the leading of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:6). This is the secret to continuing change and beginning and ending each day as a brand new person.