DAY NINETY-TWO:
A New Creation in Christ
Today we look at what we really are vs. what we appear to be on the outside. God makes all things new, but He starts on the inside and works His way out. The process is lifelong, and we pass through stages of maturity. We call the process by which caterpillars become butterflies metamorphosis. The Greek root means to remake, to transform. The Bible uses this same word for how God changes us.
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." We can't deny that our are deteriorating bit by bit, and that the day of our deaths is anything but inevitable. We can't hang onto our bodies, or anything else in this material world. But God is still working on the inside, and His work makes us more beautiful each and every day. I've seen this so often with the elderly saints who have followed the Lord for many years. Their rich experiences, combined with many years of Bible reading and prayer, increase their faith and love. Their smiles and the winks in their eyes are little glimmers of that dazzling treasure hiding within them. Knowing that we can't keep our treasures in this world but can't lose them in the next, we can endure whatever life throws at us. President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address over eighty years ago, in the throes of the Great Depression. He said, "In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone." Sounds a little like today, doesn't it? But Roosevelt was absolutely right. We might lose everything we own, but we haven't lost what really matters.
"For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." You've been camping all your life, but didn't know it! Our bodies are like tents, meant as a temporary dwelling place. Jesus told us in John 14:2-3, "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." God has promised us a new home, and He's given us a deposit- the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, is His guarantee that He will fulfill all His promises. We may struggle and groan in this life, but what's waiting for us makes it worth it all!
"So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." We have to walk by faith and not by sight. All of the great people we've read about in our study walked by faith. Abraham believed God's absurd promise to give this elderly and barren couple a son, and from him to produce a people who will be more numerous than the sand on the beach or the stars in the sky. Abraham left everything he had known for a yet-undisclosed location. He believed so much in God's promise that he prepared to offer that long-awaited son as a sacrifice when God asked him to. That's walking by faith and not by sight! Some time back I compared walking by faith to a pilot trusting his instruments rather than his senses. Your eyes can play tricks on you in the air, but the instruments show the true way. We have to learn to walk by faith and trust God despite what our senses, including common sense, tell us. We'll all answer for how we lived our lives. We'll stand before God's judgment seat and explain ourselves. This is not for salvation, because Christ has already secured it for us. It's what we do after we trust in Him that will be questioned. I know there are some things in my life that I don't relish explaining to God, and I don't want to rack up any more things like that. Back to school to learn how to walk by faith!
"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." (5:14-15) The Greek word for control literally means to hold together. The love of Christ holds us together and directs our lives. Jesus raises us up from spiritual death and we no longer live for ourselves. We live to please Christ! He has a mission for us. He wants us to be His ambassadors, His representatives, toward everyone we meet. Our message is a message of reconciliation. As I mentioned in a sermon a few weeks ago, the term reconciliation comes from the world of banking and finance. It means an exchange. You have a product you want to sell, and I need that product. We agree on a price. I pay the money and then take the product home. We both benefit. It's a fair trade. The trade here, however, is a grossly unfair, one-sided trade. Yet we can't complain about it because we are the beneficiaries. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (5:21) Jesus took all of our vile, ugly sins and went to the cross to pay for them. Then He gave us His perfect and spotless righteousness in exchange. His pain was our gain! "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." If this isn't good news, I don't know what is! And this Good News is something that everyone needs to hear. That's why we're called to be "ambassadors of reconciliation." God loves us and longs for us to trust in Him.
Have you trusted in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone? If not, there's no time like the present. "Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, 'In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (6:1-2) If the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, if you know you're not right with God, just ask Him to forgive you for Christ's sake. For more on how to become a Christian, click on this link. And I'd be honored to help you!
Here's one of my favorite Southern Gospel songs that goes along with our passage today:
And while looking for this video, I found another video, in which Stuart Hamblen, the songwriter, tells how he came to write it. It's worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNzcGxl5nk8
No comments:
Post a Comment