Josh Hatcher's Blog
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Made All Over Again: 2 Corinthians 5
2 Corinthians 5: 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The beauty of this makes my eyes well up. We're not talking about the kind of religion that just changes the way we dress, or changes the way we act, or the way we talk...
We're talking about us being MADE all over again. If we accept Jesus, and do as Paul urges us to, and become "reconcilied" to God, then we are "in" Christ, and we become a brand new creation.
And the beauty of this ransom is this... Jesus, who never screwed up, took my punishment. Through my acceptance of that, I am RE-MADE.
We need to keep this in mind... because in other passages of scripture it is clear, that though we are a new creation, we still have our old nature in us. It's an unfortunate part of the world we live in... earth is ruled by sin and destruction, and SOMEDAY... we will be completely delivered from earth and its curses.
In the meantime, if we've given our hearts to Christ, and been reconciled to God, than we are a new person, created to withstand the assassins of earth and to overcome the temptations that lead to death.
We were made to win.
Which makes it all the more sad when we lose.
Let me encourage you.
You are strong enough to beat this sin that is holding you back. You have been re-made by God, and have superpowers to withstand these assaults. Really. You do.
You do not have to live like you used to live. You can be free. You can be victorious. It is not easy, but war never is.
We are at war. We are at war with our own flesh. We are at war with spiritual forces.
On a Side Note: Don't misunderstand the war metaphor into thinking that Christians who think differently are at war against you. Or that the non christian with a different belief system is out to get you, or that you should be out to get him. We are not at war against people. We are NOT at war against belief systems.
We are at war against our own sin. We are at war against our enemy the devil.
And we've been given the strength to overcome.
The beauty of this makes my eyes well up. We're not talking about the kind of religion that just changes the way we dress, or changes the way we act, or the way we talk...
We're talking about us being MADE all over again. If we accept Jesus, and do as Paul urges us to, and become "reconcilied" to God, then we are "in" Christ, and we become a brand new creation.
And the beauty of this ransom is this... Jesus, who never screwed up, took my punishment. Through my acceptance of that, I am RE-MADE.
We need to keep this in mind... because in other passages of scripture it is clear, that though we are a new creation, we still have our old nature in us. It's an unfortunate part of the world we live in... earth is ruled by sin and destruction, and SOMEDAY... we will be completely delivered from earth and its curses.
In the meantime, if we've given our hearts to Christ, and been reconciled to God, than we are a new person, created to withstand the assassins of earth and to overcome the temptations that lead to death.
We were made to win.
Which makes it all the more sad when we lose.
Let me encourage you.
You are strong enough to beat this sin that is holding you back. You have been re-made by God, and have superpowers to withstand these assaults. Really. You do.
You do not have to live like you used to live. You can be free. You can be victorious. It is not easy, but war never is.
We are at war. We are at war with our own flesh. We are at war with spiritual forces.
On a Side Note: Don't misunderstand the war metaphor into thinking that Christians who think differently are at war against you. Or that the non christian with a different belief system is out to get you, or that you should be out to get him. We are not at war against people. We are NOT at war against belief systems.
We are at war against our own sin. We are at war against our enemy the devil.
And we've been given the strength to overcome.
:: posted by joshhatcher, 5:43 AM
1 Comments:
Josh, it's cassie, I was wondering what that website was with the typing thing you were telling me about at walmart, My Email is silly.tricks.are.for.kids@gail.com Give me a hollar if you could
