Pastor Daniel Yaw

Introduction
It is still the beginning of a new year of 2018.  Furthermore, the Chinese are also celebrating their Chinese Lunar New Year in February.  What is new for the year?  There will be many if we care to recall.  However, allow me to share with you thoughts about the newness of life in Jesus.
 
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away behold the new has come.”
 
We are perhaps very familiar with this verse asserting that when we come to Jesus Christ, we have become new - a new creation.  How does a new creation look like?
 
A New Status in life
Many at times, when we think of this verse, the newness we thought of would be a change in our moral life.  We stop doing the bad things in life and start doing good.  That is true but it is really only a part of what the apostle is talking about.
 
First and foremost, he is talking about a change in status when we believe in Jesus Christ.  The following verse, in verse 18, says that, “All this is from God...”, which meant that the newness is from God, nothing of us.
 
A change in moral life can be from us as we see people who may not believe in Jesus could also undergo such changes in their lives.  Therefore the change that the apostle talks about is something different.  He says that it must come from God.
 
I believe the newness is about the status of life in Christ rather than a moral change.  While the moral change is good and necessary, it is only a product of this first change.  That change is a “reconciliatory” change in Christ.
 
What comes from God is what Christ has done in order that we may be reconciled always to God.  This newness is on a constant move in that God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.
 
I therefore moved from alienation from God to association with God.  I moved from hopelessness to hope, from fear to faith, from enemy to friend.  That is what the apostle is saying.  The newness is completely new.  It affects the way I think, the way I do things and the way I talk and relate to people.
 
It is an unshakable state - in that moral change may not be constant - we still struggle with sin today.  However a change of status means my life is now secured in Christ.  I am a child of God.
 
A New Motivation in life
The new thing that is new is the outcome of this status - a new motivation to living.  While God was reconciling the world to himself, he has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  We become ambassadors for Christ.  We are witnesses of God’s grace upon our lives and thus making proclamation of that good news.
 
However the newness that Paul elaborated is actually the motivation of life.  Scrolling back the passage to verses 13 and 16, the apostle talks about the love of Christ controlling us the moment we experience our new status in Christ.  What we see happening to our lives then is a new motivation.  In the words of the apostle in verse 13, “for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind it is for you.” and in verse 16,  “....that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”
 
The new motivation is this - in our new status, we live for God (we can understand that) in that we do all to the glory of God, and the second part, we live for others and that is what a blessed life is all about.  We stop living for ourselves.  The world that is not reconciled to God has only to live for oneself but in Christ we have another choice, another motivation and this is NEW.
 
Conclusion
Thus we ask the question, “How am I experiencing the newness in Christ?”  Firstly, do I know my status in Christ - that I am always reconciled to God?  Finally, what do I live for today?  To all those celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year, may God bless you with this newness.