New Life

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25). The ultimate hope of the Christian life is that we will be resurrected and meet God face to face.

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” Romans 6:5-7

Resurrection can only come through death.

We have to die to our old self to be given a new life. In Revelation 21, John describes that even the world must die to be resurrected. Living in the new life God offers requires dying to the old life (Collosians 3:8-11, Ephesians 4:22-26). Grabbing hold of the new life God offers us requires giving up the life where we are comfortable.

When you go to present your excuse before God, it ain't gonna be good enough.

God is not impressed with our excuses; He never has been. “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17). God wants us to come to Him as we ask Him to mend us and make us new. Too often we try to blame others for the brokenness in our lives as we bring to Him the broken pieces of our lives that we tried to glue together. When what God wants is for us to bring the broken pieces to Him so He can mend what He wants to and throw away the pieces He wants so He can give us a new life to walk in.

To not believe is to believe the not.

We all believe something. The middle ground of agnosticism is untenable. “how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” (Matthew 12:29-30). When we don’t bring our brokenness to God, we demonstrate that we lack belief in Him. When we come to God broken before trying to fix ourselves, we demonstrate that we believe in the resurrection and have hope that God will give us a new life as we let Him put to death our old life. Don’t make any excuses; believe in the resurrection; and live by what you believe.