New Year, New You?
For the latter half of last year my joke to people was that they had almost survived 2020. Usually I could at least get a smile out of that comment. The general sentiment has been that 2021 will have to be a better year. Just a few days into the new year I am not sure that anything substantive has changed. I’m not trying to discourage you, but the reset and the clean slate that everyone tends to hope for with a new year is definitely over-promised.
Sure, the new year is a great time to make a significant change in your life. A new year provides clear departure from the past. This can be helpful motivation for us. However, a new year doesn’t actually change anything. This is an illustration of the problem all of us face in trying to make lasting personal changes. We are looking to the wrong place for change. We believe year after year that a new year will produce change. If not a new year, something else. A new habit, a new relationship, a new home, a new job. Sometimes these changes might actually improve our lives but often not to the degree that we hoped. That’s because we don’t understand the kind of change we need.
That’s where 2 Corinthians 5:17 gives us real help: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” First, this passage helps reveal to us our present location. By present location, I don’t mean the list of things you hope to change by your new year’s resolutions. Our present location is first and foremost a spiritual location. 2 Corinthians 5:17 teaches us that we are either in Christ or we are without Christ. Being in Christ is not the same thing as being in church. You can be in church and not be in Christ. You can be knowledgable about Christ and yet not know Christ. To be in Christ is to be in a genuine saving relationship with Christ. Contrary to popular belief, this relationship with Christ is not something into which we are born. Every single one of us is born without Christ. We are born as sinners with a sinful nature. Before a holy and righteous God none of us measure up. To be without Christ is to be without salvation. To be without Christ is to be on our way to an eternity in a place called hell. This is a far greater problem than a new year’s resolution can fix for us. We can make improvements in our lives and become better people and yet still be without Christ. If that is the case we haven’t actually changed our location one bit.
For real life change to happen something radical had to happen. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains what was required for you and I to experience real change: “He made Him, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” In order for us to be changed into a new creation, Christ had to come and die in our place for our sins. When we come to faith in Christ we are not just making an intellectual commitment, we are actually becoming participants in Christ’s death and resurrection. Galatians 2:20 says it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 up for me.”
A new year doesn’t change anything but Jesus changes everything. This change that comes through Christ is available to anyone. Not just an elite few. Not just the religious. Not just the knowledgable. Not just the competent. “If anyone is in Christ.” No matter who you are or where you come from, if you come to Christ, you become a new creation. This change Jesus brings is comprehensive. It is not just that we become better versions of ourselves. Jesus doesn’t just clean us up a little bit or reform a few things about our lives. He makes us new creations. The phrase “new creature” points back to God’s creation of the universe itself. Just as God spoke and created all that is, when a person comes to Christ God Himself makes us a new creation. Because this is God’s doing, real change is not only possible, it is guaranteed.
If you’re not in Christ, God invites you to trust Jesus today. If you are in Christ remember that coming to Christ is not just how we find salvation. Looking to Jesus is also how we progress and mature in our faith. Looking to Jesus is how we change and grow. It is the only way for us to see lasting change in our lives. The same Jesus who was raised from the dead lives in us. Let’s look to Him this year!
If you want to think more about this check out the whole message here.