Made New

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, the new has come" (Corinthians 5:17).

I need to be reminded constantly of the truth referred to in the above verse of Scripture. Becoming a Christian (one who is “in Christ”) is not a simple matter of making a mere human choice such as I might do on New Year’s Day when I “turn over a new leaf.” Rather, the Bible tells me that becoming a child of God requires a profound, invisible, supernatural transformation that requires a direct, divine miracle to make it happen.

Paul, the great Apostle, describes conversion as a resurrection--a creation of life in a soul that once harbored only death. “You once were dead in your trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), he tells me. But now, because God had mercy on me, through Christ I have been made alive (Eph. 2:4-5). Alive to my desperate need for grace, alive to the power and forgiveness of the risen Christ, alive to the truth that He will save all who trust and embrace and follow Him.

Just think of a closed tomb containing a deep, dark nothingness...cold...lifeless... hopeless of any light or warmth penetrating its thick stony walls. This was my heart when it came to the God who made me. I wanted nothing to do with Him or His law or His love or His truth. Oh, I might have made a pretense of religion for the sake of appearances or to placate my own conscience. But God’s supreme act of love--sending His only Son to die in the place of lost sinners--this love found my heart stony and unresponsive as a tomb.

But, in the words of a great old hymn: “Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke; the dungeon flamed with light! My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee!” When God spoke into the lifeless void, “Let there be light,” behold, there WAS light. He spoke and an entire universe came into being at His command. Similarly, when this same God gave the word over my dark, dead soul, life was generated that was absent before.

And newness was the result: new hope, that a lost sinner like I could reach out and trust in Jesus Christ the God-man to forgive and free me from my guilt and shame. New understanding, that all God had told me in His word was true and that truth would set me free from my own pride and worldly wisdom. New desires, for the beauty, truth and goodness of the triune God who chose and called and re-created me; for deeper and deeper fellowship with Him and with His people. New freedom to follow those new desires and say “no” to those sinful choices that had infested my old nature.

Sometimes Jesus performed His miracles in a big way, such as the feeding of the five thousand with a small boy’s lunch. Other times He healed people privately, as when He told the centurion that he should return home because His servant would live. Likewise, there are many accounts of conversions to Christ that are grand and stupendous, written about in books and broadcast in the mass media to make a worldwide impact. But there are also quiet conversions that no one ever hears about, as when a little child slowly begins to understand the Gospel and one day begins to believe it for herself.

But don’t be fooled. It is a miracle of God that creates His new life in the hearts of ALL His people. And the result is always newness. New hope, new understanding, new desires, new freedom--a new path of living that leads my soul to heavenly joys now...and a heavenly new world to come!