“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone and the new is here.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
When we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we are saved from eternal separation from God, born-again to start a fresh new life, made into a new creation. Unfortunately for us, that does not happen over night. When we are saved, we do not miraculously become a physically different person, going from someone who is out of shape to a person in star athlete condition. We don’t change from a person who has trouble controlling their anger to a person of absolute peace. Our IQ doesn’t jump up 30 points on the chart.
What does happen, is that God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of us and breaks the chains that bind us to sin. We are captive to sin without a way to escape before we are saved, but God changes that for us at the moment of salvation. That is wonderful, but it doesn’t end there. God has done His part and broken the chains, so now it is our turn to do our part. Just as a person who wants to change how they physically look by either losing or gaining weight must look at what they eat and how they exercise, we must look at how we approach life.
Sin comes in many forms, and it is not just the “big ones”, like murder, grand larceny or adultery, that God is worried about. Sin is sin and lying, jealousy, taking the Lord’s name in vain, are just as much sin as the “big ones”. So, since God broke the chains that keep us from moving away from sin, what do we do? How do we change the way we approach life and distance ourselves from the sinful way we have lived for so long?
The answer is simple, we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us in making new decisions in each and every situation we face. That sounds simple, doesn’t it? The reality is that just as someone who is changing their outward appearance has to be vigilant about what they are eating and doing physically, we, as new creations in Christ, have to be vigilant about what we are feeding our souls and what choices we are making in everyday life. We need to begin to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us when we are used to listening to ourselves and doing what we want to do that makes us feel good in that moment.
If you want to become a new creation or have recently become a new creation in Christ by accepting the amazing free gift of salvation, then I don’t want you to become discouraged at reading this and believe that there is no way to grow as the new creation you are. I encourage you instead to continue to make small changes every day in how you choose to react to life situations by choosing to listen for the Holy Spirit’s direction, choosing to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction and choosing to trust the Holy Spirit that He has your best interest in mind and is leading you down the path to growth and maturity as a child of God.
My hope is that this blog can become a resource that you are able to use to make you think about different situations you may be facing in life, help you to pause for a moment and possibly change course as you are responding to life. I am not claiming to have all the answers about how to become a mature Christian or what we should do in each moment of life, but I am claiming to know the One who does have those answers. God wants to be involved in our lives, intimately, and we are the ones who are able to choose if we are going to let Him be involved. So I pray that as this blog continues, that guidance is able to be found here as well as encouragement and understanding of the challenges we all face as we move from a sinner who was separated from God, to a sinner who is saved by grace and has eternal life with God. Have a wonderful day.