A New Point of View

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (KJV) I spoke with a fellow Christian who told me, "I thought being a new creature meant my old habits and hang-ups were gone, and I wouldn't have to deal with them any more." If only that were true, how much easier life would be!

There is no denying that many people experiencing Christ's salvation have a radical change in their attitudes, appetites, and ambitions. But there is no guarantee that well-established behaviors are going to suddenly vanish. The Apostle Paul wrote, "I discipline my body [which is, after all, the point at which a great deal of failure begins] and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (I Corinthians 9:27 NKJV) Forgiveness is freely offered; a right relationship with God is the point His plan. But Paul found living righteously was not automatic.

"New creation" means, most of all, that the once-dead spiritual being has been brought to life. One of the evidences of this is in the mind. "We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (II Corinthians 5:16, 17 NLT) At salvation, the new life has only begun; that is why we call it "the second birth." We begin then to live with more than just the human point of view, and to become mature in Christ, this new point of view must continue to expand throughout our whole faith journey.

God transforms us into new persons by changing the way we think. "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:1, 2 MSG)

MaryMartha

Scripture marked NKJV taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotation marked NLT is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture marked MSG is taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.