17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
Reflection
Whenever I’m feeling down or I’m feeling the pressure of holding it all together, I turn to scripture. I know I’ll find the hope and encouragement to power through the tough moments in life, as well as the unending, everyday things that need to be overcome. Today’s verse is one I often turn to when I need to remember what this discipleship journey is really about-it’s a gift, and a gift meant to be shared. This verse is one of my favorite, joyful scriptures because it is a grace filled promise given to everyone who believes in Christ, “The old has gone, the new is here!”
Paul, the author of 2 Corinthians, personally experienced what this verse means. Paul was persecuting Christians when he first experienced the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, where he became blind and helpless. Experiencing the risen Christ stopped him in his tracks and turned his life completely around from persecuting Christians, to believing in Jesus as Lord and savior. The old Paul was gone and Paul became a new creation, through the grace of God and was reborn through the love of Jesus Christ. The miracle of God’s grace is that it’s available to “anyone” by faith in Christ, it transforms us where we are. We don’t deserve it, we don’t own it, but we can share the good news of God’s grace through Jesus with everyone we
meet. God’s grace opens our eyes to the truth of how we are on the wrong path, like Paul, and set our feet on a path of mercy. Or our hearts may be “strangely warmed” as John Wesley, founder of Methodism, experienced when he said, “ I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
by Jeneene Reduker
For Pondering and Prayer
Our lives we lived before we come to know Christ are gone and all that lies before us is a life transformed by grace. Our transformation doesn’t end at the moment of our spiritual rebirth as a new creation. It’s the beginning of our relationship with God where we are continually being changed into loving children of God. Freed from a past life of sin and death, we now live lives of grace and love by loving God, sharing the good news and serving others, making disciples for the transformation of the world.
Are you living into the promise of a new life in Christ transformed by God’s grace? Let’s give thanks to God for God’s love and grace and celebrate our new transformed lives by sharing the good news of Jesus. Who can you share this good news with today?
Prayer: Holy and loving God, thank you for sending Jesus to bring us new life. Help us to remember that it is by the gift of your grace through Christ that we are your new creation, and help us to live transformed lives so that we may love you, share the good news of Jesus, and serve others, making disciples for the transformation of the world. Amen.
