Do I Really Believe “All Things New?”

It was 42 years ago tonight at 6:10 p.m. that I became a brand-new person in this world. It was 14 years ago in July that I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and became a new creature in Him. July is a pretty amazing month in my book!

 But do I really believe that all things are made new? Am I completely new? What part of the old person is gone, and what I am supposed to do with the new? 

 In one of our recent Sunday School classes, we talked about 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

 We talked about how a caterpillar becomes an entirely new creature when it changes into a butterfly. The butterfly can’t decide it wants to go back to being a caterpillar. It doesn’t take its wings off and refuse to flutter by. It’s new, all the way to its core.

 It’s easier to explain new creatures when you’re talking about butterflies because most kids have seen caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies. It’s entirely different when you’re talking about a human being, a new believer. The concept of being a new creature in Christ can be quite daunting, especially when salvation doesn’t change our outer body. Being saved doesn’t change us physically in some dramatic way, even while our hearts and minds have been made new.

Every July 29, I think about the year that’s gone by and the year that’s on its way. More than anything, I want to have been exactly what God needed me to be this past year, and I want Him to use me in great ways in the year to come. I know from Scripture that this is one way to tell you’ve become a new creature - the old creature wasn’t concerned with the things of God. Now I pray every morning that God will let His Word speak to me, showing me things I’ve never seen before. My new creature just wants to learn and grow and become a little more like Jesus every day.

 And what things do we let go of to make that happen? Our selfishness, our attitudes and our personal desires. Self is a hard thing to put down, but now with the Holy Spirit in us, we’re able to fight and win any time the flesh raises its ugly head. That’s one of those gifts at salvation that God blesses us with, and the ability to be victorious in any circumstance is a powerful and precious gift, for sure. 

 So as I celebrate my birthday today, I’ll be rejoicing in the new creature God has created in me, and I’ll be praying for boldness and opportunity to lead one more soul Jesus Christ in the year to come.

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