The Old Has Gone

             Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (I Corinthians 5:17-21)

Jesus died. He rose again. OK, so now we can go to Heaven. Woo hoo! It’s sort of like a naturalization ceremony. I attended several. The new citizens take an oath of allegiance. Everyone applauds, then politicians step in and start lecturing. That’s the next step, isn’t it? Christ died. He rose again. Now that you have salvation, let me tell you the rules. Right? The way some people explain it, you’ve joined the Christian army. Time for boot camp! And, in at least one sense, that’s true. When a person is born again, it’s into a hostile environment. But we don’t throw a person into Fort Jackson five minutes after they’re born.

When someone becomes a part of the body of Christ, a new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here! It’s as if God has planted a seed within us. At first, the environment may not stimulate the seed to grow, and when it does grow, it may face any number of difficulties, but the biggest, and worst difficulty has been resolved.