Sometimes in our lives, I believe we think about just how good it would be to start new all over again. When you have a new baby in your life, it shines with beauty and Love, which sparks the newness of life in what we have. When we purchase something pristine or valuable, it sparks the adrenaline, and we get excited and think about how this newness is welcomed. How about getting a new job. With the excitement and confidence of passing the interview and background check, you are well on your way to something new, a new beginning, a new way of living life, and a new adventure.
In the reading today from the Epistle of Hebrews, we find a concept here that everyone can relate to so that when we think we are stuck in this life full of sin, there is a New Way of Living.
This method has a few parts to it that we will discuss today, but let me give you a not-so-new concept to follow when thinking about a New Way of Living, its living with FULL assurance in Christ with faith!
You see, friends, living life NEW in a not so new world or body is not something we should take lightly! When a carpenter is working on a new home or piece of furniture, when something is broken or damaged, does the carpenter tear down the entire house or destroy the piece of furniture to rebuild it? No, it’s repaired and then made good as new.
I know you’re asking yourself, what exactly am I talking about with this NEW business! Well, the newness of life that we each can live, even admist our own current situation, our current sinful life and sinful world we live in is this, Putting On The New Self every day!
Hear what Paul tells us in the letter to the Colossians, “Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Did you hear that? Set our minds to things above, things of God, holy, genuine and true! But it doesn’t stop there. Its also has and experiencing God’s Loving grace that regenerates newness in our lives!
In the book of Job it tells us, “It is loving grace that is the thunder of God’s power.”
If we have known the beginnings of Gods power in our own lives; if the humility of Christ has humbled our pride; if our fears have been calmed by the peace that Christ imparts; if the outpouring of Christ’s Love has softened our self-centered greed; if our pretentious self-righteousness has been brought to him who is the light; if this saving work has been begun in us, then we have known by the invincible logic of a living experience the final power that will not fail, the Love that will not let us go. This is faith. If faith in the savior does not lead us to a living hope, it is not genuine faith. A despairing faith is a self-contradiction.
The crucial battle in the war against evil has been fought and won. It is now possible for the redeemed to enter the presence of God with confidence. In todays reading in the letter to the Hebrews it tells us “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds.”
What does this say to us today? When we are of a divided mind, house, and culture, our focus and joy are in jeopardy. When something attempts to take away the absolute Love that only God can provide, this begs the question why? Why me? Why now?
So far, we have reviewed a lot of information, but it still begs the elaboration of how we can live life New every day?
So let me say this as food for thought. What would it take to start something new? What do we need to muster up to be new again?
2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
In this passage alone, there is no indicators of losing something, but rather if you are in Christ and Christ is in you, a new creation has been done.
The prophet Ezekiel tells us ,”I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
Does this sound familiar what I said earlier about being divided?
The prophet Isaiah tells us, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
The book of Revelation tells us, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
And so many other scriptures tells us of Gods unending Love and how he makes all things new again for those who call upon the name of the Lord.
But still, there is a lingering catch in my thought process that lingers in my heart. I still have sin in my life that I deal with every day. As we all know as Christians, sin is what separates us from God, so if we do not deal with the sin, what happens to us? We become divided, separated from God and ultimately will perish.
Rest assured, friends, in the reading today in Hewbrews, a simple verse seems to seal all the doubt into submission to my comprehension and knowledge.
“And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember.”
Did you hear that? God will no longer remember our sins!
Jeremiah tells us, “And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
However, there is something to remember here, we MUST act upon the efforts, then, we can experience the Newness he promises.
Acts tells us, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.”
To accept Christ’s sacrifice for our sins is to have an internal sanction of the laws of God in our hearts and mind. Just as the Psalms says, “O how I Love your Law Oh God.”
The believer has been consecrated by the perfect sacrifice so that the forgiveness of sins is assured and God no longer remembers them against us. The believer must encounter struggle and strive for growth, but the motive is no longer self-righteous pride: gratitude for God’s mercies in Christ.
Inclosing friends, I want you to understand the concept that Newness is not a catch-all to wipe away our pain and suffering, it is, however reassurance of hope that God loves us unconditionally, and when we come to him in prayer and deed, with the most sincere repentance, he will forgive us and Glory hallelujah, he will remember our sins NO MORE!
Let me leave you with this thought. Sin is the one thing God cannot look upon, do you realize that? When sin is in our lives, God cannot look upon us, yet when we are saved, repented, sealed by Christ’s loving mercy and the ultimate sacrifice paid on the cross for you and I, then all we have talked about today will happen and the sin will be remembered no more.
Have you ever wondered why on the cross when Jesus said “Father, why have you forsaken me?”
Think about it! The sins he carried for all humanity, he carried mystically and mysteriously that we cannot comprehend. Yet even God could not look upon Jesus at that moment in time. In the book of Habakkuk it states this, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”
So friends, we can live a New life everyday knowing that our sins will be forgiven and not remembered no more, even if we remember them. That alone should give us a good start on the way towards succeeding our journey in this life as Ambassadors for Christ, Disciples of Christ and start living a New life everyday, Amen.
JOIN ME IN OUR PRAYER OF CONFESSION