By Pastor Don Schatz
Becoming New
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud Link
“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
II Corinthians 5:17. New Revised Standard Version
My wood raised beds had to be replaced. I replaced them with new metal beds. Wood rots. Metal doesn’t. Coated metal won’t rust either. The wood looked great in the beginning. But 10 years later, not so much. What was old was replaced 
by something new. A different material, but the same thing–a raised bed.
Christ made us new. We are still human. But we are brand new. The new creation that John introduces in the first chapter of his Gospel is personalized by the Gospel in us. “Everything old has passed away,” wrote Saint Paul. The New Creation of God’s Kingdom is peopled by a New Creation–you and I and all who profess Jesus as Savior and Lord. Everything, everyone, has become New.
It never gets old, being completely new. One never tires, being continually renewed by the Gospel in the Kingdom. In Genesis 1, at the close of each creative day, God saw that it was good. His daily new creative work was very good. He thinks the same about you, his New Creation in Jesus. Good. Very good. New. Daily renewed.
How are we daily renewed? By practicing God’s presence in prayer. By embracing the Lord Jesus and remaining devoted to him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. By reading the Scriptures and maturing in the faith and the Spirit. By worship. By daily confession of sins and reception of the forgiving grace of God. By putting off the old and putting on the New in Christ Jesus. By enjoying the companionship and fellowship of fellow Christians.
Do you feel old today? Older? You are ever new and renewed in Jesus. Today and everyday.
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
