The year is closed, the record made,
The last deed done, the last word said,
The memory alone remains
Of all its joys, its griefs, its gains,
And now with purpose full and clear,
We turn to meet another year.
Robert Browning (1812–1889)
Many of us embark on a new year with the hope that things will be better than the previous year. A common practice upon January first is the “resolution”. New Year Resolutions are attempts on our part to reshape or redirect our lives with a view to improving our circumstances. Historically, this process soon results in personal failure and the painful realization that nothing has changed. Circumstances are what they are and one’s personal resources for addressing them remain as they did in the previous year.
(2 Corinthians 5:17) "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." In this scripture the apostle Paul reveals the startling secret that “all things are become new.” The difficulty with this truth, for many believers, is that they don’t feel new. Their circumstances aren’t new and life appears no different than it has always been.
The truth is that “in Christ” we are a new creature. The moment we trust Christ there is a miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit where we are baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). In this we become eternally and irrevocably identified with our Savior, Jesus Christ. This identification brings completeness to our lives that we could never achieve in our own strength.
(Colossians 2:6-12) "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: {7} Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. {8} Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. {9} For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. {10} And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: {11} In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: {12} Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead."
Colossians two contains much vital information for the struggling Christian. First, our walk (the way we live) is to function on the same basis as our conversion; by grace through faith. Second, we need to be established (grounded and mature) in the faith which, in the Pauline context, means being rooted in the doctrines of grace. Third, the realization that our sufficiency lies in our identity “in Christ” where we discover the fullness of everything God has accomplished for us in His Son, making us complete.
In our new identity in Christ we are to bring this completeness to our circumstances. It isn’t an issue of resolve but of faith. Also, it is not about what we can do differently but about God has done for us. When we conduct our lives on the basis of these truths we experience “newness”.
Please note; (Romans 6:4) "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." We “should walk in newness of life” because of our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. This, of course, is what we “should” do but too often we choose to make life’s choices on the basis of our Adamic heritage. In living in light of our earthly identity we negate the privileges and power of our heavenly identity.
This may appear to be a philosophical point, only, but the essential truth is that we don’t need to resolve to become new. What is required of us is to choose to live as the new creature God has made us to be “in Christ”. While many Christians angst over their difficult circumstances, pleading with God to remove the difficulties, they overlook the secret to peace in their lives. All things are become new because we are new “in Christ”. Our situation may not change but the resources at our disposal have. God doesn’t need to fix our circumstances because he fixed us.
In Ephesians 2:10 we read that “we are His workmanship” and it stands to reason that God’s handiwork is thorough and reliable. Over the coming installments we will explore the contrasts between who we were before Christ, and who we are now “in Christ.” It is my sincerest desire to encourage the saints to experience the newness that is only found in living in light of the new creature God has made us to be. The resources of God’s grace are bountiful and it is shameful for the children of God to live as spiritual paupers when, in truth, they are “blessed with all spiritual in heavenly places blessings in Christ”.
