2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
To change your life, you must be born again and then believe you are who God says you are. Don’t be deceived into believing today’s self-help gurus that teach you are the source of change in your life. A broken computer can’t fix itself, nor can broken people heal themselves.
True lifestyle change doesn’t come from your will power, positive thinking or inner strength. Change comes from the outside in by the power of God, through the Holy Spirit!
Jesus didn’t teach His disciples to believe in themselves, rather He taught them to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him! Jesus also taught, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). In other words, your life doesn’t need an upgrade or minor changes; you need an entirely new life from God that goes beyond human potential.
Likewise, Paul in today’s passage gives the one and only way to truly change your life- come to Jesus Christ and be made a new creation. Then for the rest of your life, believe you are who God says you are. When you believe that you were made holy, you will live holy. And when you believe you were made for a relationship with God, you will live dependent upon the Holy Spirit and obey God’s commands. A wise man once said, “If the devil could make you sinful, God can make you holy!”
Remember, since being born again, you’re not in a life long process of inner remodeling, but rather maintaining the “complete spiritual-renovation” that you received. After a person is made a new creation they don’t have to keep becoming a new creation, rather they are to allow the new life that they’ve already been given to grow and flourish.
Think of being made a new creation like going from being a weed to a grape vine. The vine is not a weed anymore because its very nature has been changed. Now think of sin and bad habits as weeds that try to grow along side of the vine and steal its life. A good gardener will come and remove the weeds whenever he sees them. And if the weeds affect any of the vines and they become unfruitful, he prunes them so the vine can always be healthy and be able to produce good fruit.
The same is true in the disciple’s life. Once you are born again you are a new creature- you are no longer a sinner (weed) but are a righteous child of God (grape vine). When you are tempted to sin and go back to your old ways (like weeds trying to grow in the vineyard) God will remove them from your life- if you allow Him to. And if you do sin and evil takes root in your heart- He will cut it out and make you whole again when you repent.
If you haven’t been born again, ask God right now to be the Lord of your life and make every part of you new, from the inside out. And if you have already been born again, abide in the vine of Jesus and ask Him to make you a fruitful branch (John 15:1-10).
Reflection
Action
- Be born again and made a new creation if you haven’t already.
- Repent of any sins or disobedience in your life and ask God to daily “lead you not into temptation, but deliver you from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
- By the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, believe you are who God said you are and that you can do what He said you can do!
