Showing posts with label all things new. Show all posts
Showing posts with label all things new. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Unbroken.





A dear friend shared this song with me recently.




The bridge of the song says: “Here I am at your feet, in my brokenness complete”

I started to wonder, "Is that true?"

Actually, no. We are complete in Christ, not in our brokenness. 

Our brokenness is what Jesus removes from us. He makes us whole and perfect and qualified and partakers of the Divine Nature, and new creations.

We are not "complete in our brokenness", we are hidden with Christ in God, we are without blemish, and without blame, we are free from condemnation, we are redeemed, righteous, holy, chosen, accepted and beloved…but not broken – not anymore.

Everyone needs to realize the amazing reality of our true identity in Christ! Let's not reinforce the notion that we are "unworthy" and "broken". That is not who we are!

Yes, this is how we came to Christ, in the beginning, but we do not remain as we were in the beginning, do we?

No. Not at all. 

We must move on.

We need to "forget the past and press on to the High calling of Jesus Christ!" and that means we do not continually remain in this place of blame and guilt.

Let's meditate on these verses for a while and see what the Lord says about who we really are in Christ:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." - 2 Cor. 5:17

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” – Romans 8:1-5

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:37-39

Halleluiah!

I'm sure we can all share many other verses from Jesus and the New Testament that boldly reveal who we are in Christ today!

We are made complete in Him, not in our brokenness.

Let's continue to spur one another on and to remind one another of the awesome new life - and new nature - we now have in Christ.

-kg

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

New Is Good



Tired of the “same old song and dance”? Who isn’t? Luckily, Jesus has fulfilled and abolished the Old and replaced it with the New.

It all starts with the New Covenant that Jesus made with those who place their trust in Him:

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” – (Luke 22:20)

Once we drink from that cup, He gets right to work making us new as well:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – (2 Cor. 5:17)

Once we’ve been made new Jesus pours His “new wine” into us:

“Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” – (Matt. 9:17)

Filled with the “new wine” of His Holy Spirit, Jesus empowers us to follow His “new commandment”:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” – (John 13:34)

Next, Jesus opens the door wide open for us to enter into glorious fellowship with Himself and His Father:

“…. we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…” – (Heb. 10:19-20)

Jesus even abolished the Old Law of Commandments in order to make both Jews and Non-Jews into “one new man” so that those who are in Him are united as His Chosen Ones:

 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace…” - (Eph. 2:15)


To those who continue to abide in Him, Jesus promises to keep on making things new, even giving us a new name to match our new nature and identity in Himself:

To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’” – (Rev. 2:17)

What’s more, from now until the end of time, Jesus is continually, daily, making all things new again so that, eventually, everything old is redeemed and under His final, ultimate authority:

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” – (Rev. 21:5)

Now, that’s Good New!

-kg


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NOTE: For more about the differences between the Old and New Covenant, read "Questions About The Old and The New Covenants"