"New Year, New You" - Series: Part 2

Happy Sunday TiMP Nation hopefully you all had a blessed and safe week. I also hope that each of you out there took the time to read our scriptural study text, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and Galatians 2:20 (Read).

Today we will wrap our short series, “New Year, New You” the intent of this short series was to highlight the importance of a Christ decision and the powerful impact it will have on the way you live, walk, talk and carry yourself.

First let’s break down 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Paul is dealing with the church at Corinth and in this context teaching them on being a new creature. Now this is not that someone will die and be re-incarnated as another person or an animal as some un-Godly beliefs teach. What is being addressed here is a spiritual reckoning between the sinful Adam in you which represents death and eternal life that can only come through Christ. We must understand that without accepting Christ through faith, then not only will we suffer a physical human death but also a spiritual eternal death. Paul in verse 17 captures the beginning of the context by saying “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are made new. Pay attention there is more here than just the surface read. First there is opportunity to be in (or with) Christ, this comes through faith by way of salvation. Then there is a refreshing of who you were through this Christ relationship. There is a death to your old sinful Adam nature, prior to this death the blindness of sin impaired your vision. But now being in Christ you can behold (see) by faith His glory and presence. Lastly, there is reconciliation. Now we all should get excited about this reconciliation, Christ purpose was not only to be the fulfillment of God’s love through death, burial and resurrection. But to be the only source of restoring man (mankind) to a right relationship with God The Father. The beauty of Paul’s writing actually his testimony, because he himself experienced this, is that if you didn’t not get these points from the one statement in verse 17, he covers it in 18-21.

Paul continues promoting this very and most important decision in one’s life when teaching the Galatian church. In Galatians 2:20, he says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”. There are two aspects I want to point out here, first the obvious correlation of Paul ensuring that the message is the same. Second, his articulation of the death process of one’s self. I know I’ve taught on this before in relation to the change that should occur when one is truly repentant in their heart toward God. Here we see Paul driving that point home in expressing his own salvation relationship with Christ. His identifying as crucified with Christ is his expression of understanding his sin died with Christ on the cross. Paul the sinner is no longer alive but it is Christ The Savior who has taken up residence and given new life on the inside! Paul understood there is no longer any benefit of his own flesh, but life is truly only achieved living by faith in Christ who is the only begotten Son of God.

Just like Paul we must come to fully understand in order for the relationship in Christ to fully develop and be in line with God’s will, we must be willing to die! Christ not only gave Himself for Paul, but for you, me and the entire world. So, if you want a “new you” in 2022, you must first recognize it doesn’t start with you, anyone or anything else. A new you starts with Christ! Without a doubt the best decision you can make today while you have breath in your body, is to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). This is the unchangeable promise of God’s grace. Amen.