New

   I once went in to an auto store years ago and found a small container of spray that had the title, ”New Car Scent.” Most people like to get into a brand new car and just sit there taking in the aroma of a mixture of new plastic, metal and leather. There is no scent of old apple cores, french fries under the seat and opened drink cans. It is new and smells new. Well, it doesn't seem to last too long, so someone came up with the idea of trying to put the aroma of a new car in a small can so you cold spray it into your old jalopy and make it smell like a brand new car off of the show room floor. Yep, I bought it and to be honest, it didn't remind me of a new car at all. It had the aroma of a transformer that had just overheated. So much for the new car smell. We still like to have things that are new, no matter what they are. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 

           The word “new” occurs 150 times in the Bible and much of the time refers to something that is new as compared to something that has been around for some time. We have the reference here of a new creature but there is also the mention of a new song, a new city and a new earth all in the book of Revelation. The Apostle Paul in today's passage makes the reference to a new creature and defines it as someone who is “in Christ.” If any person is “in Christ,” he or she is a “new” creature. There comes that time when each person realizes that their present life is far from God wants it to be and no matter how many times we endeavor to get things right, it just doesn't happen. We long to not fly off the handle at the least aggravating thing, or to find ourselves doing something that we know is wrong, but we do it anyway. Actually, sins begin to pile up in our lives and we are crushed beneath the load and try some self help idea only to end up in failure time and time again. We long to be different but it just doesn't happen. Then, a person hears the Gospel message and the words of Paul and Silas, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and ye shall be saved.” As Wesley put it in the hymn, “And Can it Be,” my chains fell off. In that instant, the sinner becomes a “new creature.” That for which your soul yearned, suddenly appears and you are set free. You are now a new creature. You tried in the past to purchase such a change but couldn't do so. Now you find that this precious change, this new life, this new creature, is a free gift from God and that there is nothing that you could have ever done to earn such a wonderful change. As we dwell on this passage for today, please notice the words, “in Christ.” That is where the change takes place and only there. The flip side is also true that if a person is “not” in Christ, they are not a new creature no matter how many degrees they have, or how much money they have or how many gurus they have visited. There is one way and only one way and that is to be “in Christ.” Praise God for such an unspeakable gift.