Living in the New.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says we "...are a new creation." (NIV) One version says, "Look! You are a new creation!" The emphatic is appropriate. My version would say, "Holy Cow! Unbelievable! Totally Awesome!! I am not who I was, I am new!!" But this begs the question, "If I am new, how come I feel so old?"

Before we deal directly with that question, let me say that the scriptures are true... cover to cover. Therefore, we are new when we are in Christ. In this text, as well as several others, believers are described as dead to sin, as having died to this life, and have been made new, and that Christ is living in us. The implication is that there is a death, and a re-birth. (Hence, being born again...) If God's word is true, which it is, then the problem with how I feel is not His word, but me. Something in me doesn't feel new, act new, live new.

So here we go... "why do I not feel new sometimes?" Simply put, it is not a feeling. It is a fact. The reality that we struggle over the question is a new thing in and of itself. If I was still lost in my sin, I wouldn't even understand this question. But God, who is stirring in me New Life, is drawing me into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Himself, and as I grow, I am more troubled each day by my lack of newness. That troubling is part of the New. I was never troubled before by my lack of closeness to God, not in any real sense. So the struggle, in fact, signals that I am alive to God.

So far, this is not satisfying.. let's keep going... In order to have a new life, we have to die first. Have you died to yourself? Have you taken up your cross and committed to following Jesus? If so, you are in the new. If not, we need to talk.

When a person is born, they are called a.. come on everyone, what are they called? Yes, a baby. What does a baby do? Well, they eat and cry and poop and sleep. They are amazed by the simplest things. They strive to learn everything and anything. They struggle to reach, to move, to crawl, then to walk. I think you are getting my point here. When we are born again into the New Life, we enter into this life as babies. Typically, a new believer is absolutely stunned by the grace of God and they are ecstatic about what is going on in their lives. Later, as they grow, some of the struggles start. Where each person's particular struggles manifest are particular to each believer. What I have seen in real life is that God chooses the areas of your life that He wants to work on. He is gracious, and perfect, and He loves you. He loves you the way you are, but He wants more for you... He wants you to truly experience the New Life, so He begins to conform you into the person you were created to be. And though we are New, we still need to be conformed, and it is a process (Romans 12:1-2)


Again, why do I feel so old sometimes? Final thought is, you are not alone. Even Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament, struggled. Ever read Romans 7? Go ahead.. check it out... He struggled too. You see, the real problem is not God... it is us. We return to the familiar. C.S. Lewis wrote that we are like children playing in a mud puddle, unaware that an ocean of grace is waiting for us. We are too easily frustrated, too easily discouraged. We are afraid of what the Deep of God might call us into. We are afraid of drowning in Him and losing our identity of the Old Self. (The fear of the unknown is greater than the fear of staying in the known.) That fear is unfounded, and I believe the source of that fear is from the enemy. It is a lie that we should fear the Deep of God.

God is good... that is absolutely true. But He is not safe, as though He will lead us through fields of flowers and puppies... No, He is not safe (Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis) Even Jesus remarked that He would be with us through our troubles. He didn't say He would keep us from troubles. Even green pastures have chiggers. But, my bottom line is that I would rather have the New Life in Him, troubles and all, than any kind of life without Him. God is good. His plans for us are good. And He will bring us into the New... He promised.

Enjoy the journey.