Therefore

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 
~ 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 ESV

This morning, I was reading in 2 Corinthians 5 and came across today’s passage.

The part that sort of woke me up this morning was in verse 17, where it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

I had a pastor a number of years ago who used to say…
”If you come across a “therefore” in your reading, then you need to ask yourself, ‘what’s it there for?’

There tends to be a lot of meat before the “therefore.””

In this instance, the “therefore” leads into a very important thought/statement… 
“If anyone is in Christ...he is a new creation…” 
Because of and due to all the things said before the “therefore”, if I am in Christ, then I am a new creation. 
If I am His, I have been made new.

It begins with faith in Jesus…
That is “being in Christ”…
That is, believing He is who He said He is; 
Believing He did what He said He would do,
Believing that He is the Son of God, 
the Christ, 
the Messiah; 
born of a virgin, 
lived a sinless life, 
died on the cross, 
was buried, 
and then three days later resurrected... 
rose again. 
He lived and died and lived again so that we (you and me) might live... 
might one day live with Him in heaven.

Then the verse moves into what I tend to forget and even struggle with sometimes... 
If I am in Christ, if I believe and am saved, then I am a new creation.

A new creation... 
the old has passed, 
the new has come. 
That means that my old life and all the things that once pulled me away from Him, are now supposed to be in the past. 
Dead. 
Gone. 
Buried.
Whether that was 35 years ago or yesterday...

However, it tends to be me (or the enemy, the devil) that brings the past back to mind to dwell on, 
to chew on, 
to remind me that “I am not worthy of redemption... how can someone as sinful as me be saved... be used by God... make a difference?”

And that’s where this great reminder comes in...
Yes, I am a sinner... 
a sinner saved by the grace of Jesus... 
Yes, like most of us, I may have done things in the past that I am not proud of... 
But yesterday is gone.
Today has begun a new.

Sometimes we all have to be reminded... 
sometimes on a daily basis... 
that we are saved. 
That we are forgiven. 
That we are His. 
That we are a new creation, 
saved by grace... 
saved by the blood of Jesus.

It’s a new day. 
It’s a new dawn. 
I am a new creation. 
The old has passed. 
The new has come.

Keep the Faith... Carpe Diem