by Rev Douglas Brauner

Our Lives Are New in Christ

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.” 
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 New Living Translation

When I first composed this picture, I wanted the bank’s name centered right above the “w” in the word, New. Something happened when I pressed the shutter button. I was disappointed in my composition. Maybe you’re already disappointed in the new year. You started out with high hopes and here it is only a few days into the year, and it looks much like the previous year.

Things are going backwards for you instead of moving forward. It’s hard to believe Paul’s promise to the Corinthians that “the old life is gone; a new life has begun!” We see too much of the old to believe that the new is already here.

• We’re still struggling with anger.
• We’re still struggling with pride.
• We’re still struggling with jealousy.

It’s important to hear Paul, that this “new you” doesn’t depend on us, it’s given to us by God. It’s his gift. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have been brought back to God.

Not only is this gift of a new person from God for us, but because of Jesus, we are a gift to God, a gift that God has given himself. God chose us. He loves us. He made us his own. We belong to God.

We’ll still struggle with anger, pride, and jealousy. We’re not perfect, nor do we need to be perfect to belong to God. We don’t need to clean up our lives before we can experience this new person. God cleans us up. His Spirit is now at work in us even when we are at our worst.

It might feel that our lives are heading backwards like the reflection in this picture, yet in Christ we have new life. You have new life.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado