What Was Old, Is Now New

Good Morning!! Life "in Christ" is a journey of exploration,...and discovery from beginning to end. "Christ in us" is another of those "great mysteries," as Paul put it. And anyone who thinks they fully understand this mystery, doesn’t really get it at all. Like the Bible, this is incredible stuff that just keeps getting deeper and wider, the more you get into it. When we began life in Christ, we began to experience all sorts of new things (regeneration, justification, sanctification, propitiation, and a whole slew of other neat sounding words that end in ("ation").
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!—2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

But all this new stuff brings up an interesting question; what about the old stuff? The question usually comes to me like this: "Alright, James,...after I get born again, do I now have two natures? At the core of my being, where it really matters,...am I half good, and half bad now?" Maybe you’ve never really thought about it. Maybe you are one of those who loves to debate this sort of thing, at coffee shops or book stores. Either way, how you answer this question is hugely important. On the surface, it's a perplexing question, full of emotion and experiences that can pull us back and forth. But here’s the answer: "No." Yeah, that’s it,...one little syllable; two little letters. But again, this is huge. If you are in Christ, you don’t have two "natures",...you have one nature, and your nature is in Christ too. (the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!)

Being born again first requires a death,...a death deeper and more profound than anything we can fully fathom. Exploring that death brings fresh light to our journey, of discovering True Life.

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Heavenly Father, as we open Your Word, we anticipate that You want to teach us something,...maybe something new,...maybe a reminder of something we've long-forgotten. We know that by Your Spirit, You mean to do a work within us. So in the days ahead, we offer ourselves more fully to You, and Your teachings,...so that we can experience more of who we are to become in Your Son. Amen.

"A great key to Christ-like living,...is to never place stuff over people."