SO...(if you are wondering why the "so" is there check out the last post: THE BIG IDEA) how does Christ see us (and therefore how should we see ourselves)?
2 Corinthians 5:16-19: "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
Cecilia is doing her homework while I am writing this post. She looked at my 2 Corinthian's manuscript and saw the "!" at the end of verse 17. "Look, look, mom! An exclamation point!" Honestly, I had not noticed, but I faked it..."Yes, Cecilia, and what do you think it means when there is an exclamation point in the Bible?"
"I don't know, but it has to be GOOD!" and she went back to her writing.
I may have missed the "!" in this passage but I didn't miss the Big Idea that the "!" is pointing to. And if we want to learn to live out a different life we have to pay close attention, because it is here that Christ tells us who we are. Drum Roll please........
WE ARE NEW CREATIONS! WE ARE TRANSFORMED!!
Now, some of you are thinking, "so what...I knew this passage said that...new creation...yada yada, blah blah...old is gone...yawn." And sadly some of us are so use to this idea that it no longer gets our "!" attention. Sadly we don't even think about who we really are because we are lazy or confused or tired of feeling like a failure. The life we know we live does not look like a new anything, and is far from having the freshness of a creation.
And yet that is how Christ sees us. NEW, FRESH, ENERGIZED CREATIONS!
We think that we are being transformed, and in some ways we are, but the BIG IDEA of a relationship with God is that He makes you new right from the start, and that newness doesn't wear off. This is not who we need to become. THIS IS WHO WE ARE! This is who I am, a fully transformed woman.
But how is that possible? Because I still look pretty cruddy most days. How can He call me that, and still be considered the God of Truth? That is in the passage too. It can be true of us because when we move into a relationship with Jesus, we are given His life, His transformation. We are IN HIM.
I'm going to write a bit more about this new creation tomorrow, but for today I encourage you to spend time thinking about this idea of who you are. It doesn't matter what you did today (or didn't do) or what you did this weekend. It doesn't matter how your relationships are, or where you are emotionally. If you believe in Jesus, you are a new creation, total and complete! You have a True Father who loves you and is able to delight in you because you are given the life of Christ. Since you are found in Him, you are transformed, PERIOD.
That is a big "!". And Cecilia is right it is the best kind of GOOD!
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