I have been mulling over 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 this week. Well actually I am speaking on it tomorrow night at InterVarsity's Large Group.
So the first verse says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!" This was the first verse I committed to memory, using the Navigators Topical Memory System. And in that day, in my newness in Christ it meant so much! I could leave behind all of the junk of my life. I could be made NEW, a new creation as it were.
Those things that got me down could now be turned over to God - He was the one re-making me! So anger, fear, envy, jealousy, lust, pride - all of those old things that controlled me could be GONE. my life would be marked by the Newness that was part of God's kingdom! I would be a man of love, a man of prayer, a man of the Bible. I would preach the Gospel at all times and use words only when necessary. I would pet dogs, hold kittens (well maybe not that), help old ladies across the street, feed the hungry, care for the infirmed and on and on.
I was really looking forward to this new life. Now 36 years later, How am I doing? Oh yes, He has made me a new creation! There is nothing of old Marty (or was it Martin, back then) left. I think differently. I act differently. I am different. I am a child of the King. I know it everyday. There is nothing like it! And even if I were not "paid to be good", I would still be marked by Him, His grace, His love.
But I still carry around those old sins, those OLD traits that used to drag me down before He made me new. How can that be? I am still self-centered, still envious, still angry - like yesterday when my computer got a virus that crippled the OS! ##@$%%@@**)(##!
Well no easy answers on this one - but perhaps... Is this the way He knows that I will continue to be dependent on Him. If he completely made me NEW, I would be perfect or close to it and not have a need to come to Him regularly. But if I remain a NEW CREATION in a flawed state in order to continue to be made new I will have to continue to come to Him and rest In Him!
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2 comments:
Marty- that was the first verse I memorized also when I became a Christian my freshman year of college- I LOVE IT!
Great verse Marty! I ponder the thoughts you bring out often.
2 Corinthians 5:17 has and continues to play a key role in my understanding of Victory that CAN be realized each and every day. It is not a Victory in and of myself, but because I am in Christ and He is in me; He is my life. I have a new nature - one nature. My old self (old man) has been crucified (Romans 6:6).
1 Thesalonians 5:23 (also Hebrew 4:12) speaks of man as being a three part being, Body (earthen vessel), Soul (mind, will and emotions) and Spirit. I am a Spirit who has a soul and lives in a body. My Spirit, which is my true identity is what is made new - one nature that is perfect, and righteous. But I still have a soul (what makes me unique) that is in the continual process of being renewed and sanctified. My soul does not define who I am though, my Spirit does.
I have come to understand that "sinful nature", as used in the NIV in Romans 7, is actually a poor translation of the Greek word Sarx which actually means "flesh".
I still have daily encounters with my flesh, but I think the Victory I am experiencing in increasing measure comes from deeper revelations of Christ as Life, and that my flesh is not who I am or what defines me. Rather in my flesh I sin ("miss the mark") and act in complete contradiction to who I really am.
I am thankful that my sins, all of them, have been completely forgiven and nailed to the Cross, so I confess to the Father and ask Christ to live in me and through me. I am learning to rest and walk in this truth as Christ reveals Himself as Life more and more each day.
Going to bed brother!!
Mike Andress
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