Each time a New Year dawns, it is the custom for people to greet each other with the phrase “Happy New Year!” Or, “I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!”
The expectation of a New Year means different things to different people. For many, or perhaps most people, the New Year means making personal “resolutions.” A resolution means a firm decision to do or not to do something.
However, history has revealed some resolutions have never been “kept” and are broken even before the year ends. Perhaps it’s better to make a well thought out decision for the New Year and plan to stick with it based on the factors or reason(s) for such a decision.
Maybe you have been thinking of making changes to your current lifestyle in the New Year, or at another time. Why not consider the change to be “a new Creation?” This change is the result of God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and salvation. Once you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you become a new Creation.
The Bible says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The old has passed away means the way you once were accustomed to live, including living just for self, lack of faith, trust, and hope in God. Also allowing the world’s system to dictate your lifestyle.
The old has passed away includes what the apostle Paul says about the way every human is born, which he refers to as the natural person: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Paul also says: behold, the new has come. A change for the better has come. This in no way means temptations, difficulties, and problems of various sorts will not confront you. They will still be there. However, as a new Creation, the Holy Spirit of God will now reside in you. The Bible says: “You are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
Being a new Creation also gives the assurance that God will never abandon neither forsake you. And when temptation comes, He will provide the means for you to resist and escape.
It is most important to note what the text says; the old has passed … the new has come. This refers to the position of the person who is saved and on his way to heaven. Prior to Salvation, a person is lost and needs repentance of his sins and turns to Christ for Salvation.
“The new birth experience is exactly what God says it is—a fresh beginning. When we are born again, we not only have our sin forgiven and our guilt removed, but we also receive the Holy Spirit—who comes to indwell us and live Christ’s life through us. We can never be what we were before because we have been born into His life—with a new spirit and nature. And because of that, our desires and goals should be conformed to those God has for us” (The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible NKJV p. 1387).
The new Creation is squarely centered on the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, the apostle also takes this into account and mentions it about Christ: “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” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
The biblical text continues: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18,19).
Paul is making it known: All this is from God. And clearly excludes man’s involvement in any way in the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ to make sinful man right with a holy God.
Observe the words “in Christ,” which indicates it was God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. God became man in Christ so that the death of Christ on the Cross would reconcile man to God. God cannot be reconciled to man. It is man who must be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
Oh, for the joy of being a new Creation. And because of this, the believer in Christ is kept and preserved by the power of God for a glorious future that is secured in God Himself. Here is His promise to you and me: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
A message angels fain would sing:
“Oh, be ye reconciled.”
Thus saith my Lord and King,
“Oh, be ye reconciled to God.”
— E. Taylor Cassel
Dear Reader: You can become a new Creation in the New Year by asking Jesus Christ to come into your heart and save you from your sins. Salvation in Jesus Christ comes through repentance and faith. Here’s what you do: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
The Bible also says, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:10,11).
May the Lord give you grace to trust Him. For His name’s sake. Amen.