“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Most people like getting something new. While there is a nostalgia for some of the things from our past, who doesn’t enjoy sitting in a new car and enjoying that new car smell? Everything is clean and fresh, and we make a promise to ourselves we will never eat in it to help preserve that pristine feeling it has (which, if you have children or grandchildren, is a rash vow). With time, however, the aroma that once permeated the vehicle dissipates. There may be crumbs and French fries in several nooks and crannies under the seats, and that inevitable ding or scratch has happened, giving it part of its new character.
We may try to recapture that new feeling again. We can have it detailed inside and out, with some fresh scent sprayed to help revitalize the interior (which never does have the aroma of that new car smell). We can get scratch remover or touch up paint to try covering the external defects. Ultimately, however, the luster of when it was new fades as we become accustomed to its idiosyncrasies. It may start having mechanical issues, or it may be ol’ reliable, but it isn’t new anymore.
Such is the nature of things in the material world. Even in our lives, as we mature and grow older, our bodies remind us we’re not the same as we were earlier in life. Health issues may begin to creep up on us. Our memory may not be as sharp as it once was. We realize we are not “new” anymore, and that, as James reminds us, “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). We are grateful for all that medical science can do to help us have the quality of life we have, but we know where our journey of life will eventually take us.
In all of this, though, we can rejoice that there is a way we can be made new again. We know that, just as life in the flesh brings trials with it, so sin brings its own consequences to us spiritually, and ends in death—physically and spiritually (Romans 6:23). In Christ, there is renewal, not an artificial attempt to restore something that proves ineffective, but a real regeneration spiritually, a cleansing of our souls that enables us to have a genuine relationship with God and the promise of forgiveness that results in eternal life.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
The blood of Christ enables us to pass from death to life and to reflect more and more the image of our Lord. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). While the flesh becomes weaker and weaker, new things come in Christ, and we know, once we have put off this flesh, we will reflect the image of the eternal Christ Himself (1 John 3:2). This is really the newness of life worth living for (Romans 6:4). This is a renewal unlike anything we can have or experience in this existence. “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
The nature of life takes what is new and causes it to grow old and wear out; the nature of the Son of God renews us in His image to a life eternal, “into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). Oh, how we long for this renewal, to be made new, to know we have something lasting waiting for us! Make sure your hope is focused on that which makes us new in Christ, not something temporal, physically new for only a brief moment in time. May we “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Colossians 3:10).
