From Old to New

We are thankful to God for His faithfulness to us during our successes & failures, joys & sorrows, good times & bad times in 2008. We are thankful to Him for His promise of being with us – Immanuel in this New Year 2009!

None of us would have dressed ourselves with OLD clothes on the Christmas or even on the NEW Year day. Then why do many of us still struggle to live the NEW life that Christ offers to us? Or in other words why have we not put off the OLD self in this NEW Year?

All this emphasizes on the two words – the OLD and the NEW.

The Bible reminds us in:
II Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a NEW creation, the OLD has gone, the NEW has come.

We praise God that since we are in Him, we are already a NEW creation. But that implies that the OLD self in us has to give way to the NEW self in us. St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians 2:1-10 talks about our OLD life and the word but in the 4th verse makes a radical change… but because of His love for us and His rich mercy He accepted our OLD state of death in sin. He has then given us a place with Jesus Christ in heaven and has seated us there in Him.

God has done what was required by offering us SALVATION in and through Jesus Christ. Now it’s our turn to live in this NEW identity. We are exhorted again by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:22-24 to become NEW in our minds. To put off the OLD self and then put on the NEW self is what God desires from us in this NEW year of 2009. Paul also talks about this even in his epistle to the Romans in Chapter 6:6-14.

No one likes the OLD things but the NEW ones. In the same manner, as we have begun this NEW year of 2009, God reminds us that when He has made us NEW through Christ, it’s time we start living in that identity.

Putting on CHRIST is synonymous to putting on the NEW self. Romans 13:14 says: “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

By Bro. Steven Christian