(Part 2 of 2)
"And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.”-Revelation 21:5-6
When Jesus went into the grave He went in with a frail, human body but He came out with a transformed body. It was new. Although it bore the visible evidence of what he went through, it was not the same body he once was. God didn’t simply polish up his old broken body and send him back out. He gave him a new body.
When we talk about being restored, we are talking about how Jesus restored us back into right relationship with God. He did not, however, come to restore us to our old way of life. I think that a lot of people would be satisfied if Jesus just cleaned them up a little bit. They are not looking for a new life because, although this old life has sin has caused them nothing but trouble, they still are having a hard time letting go of it. However, it doesn’t make any sense that Jesus would die to set us free from the power of sin only to restore us to a sinful life.
Jesus didn’t promise us a better version of our sinful life. He promised us a new life in him.
What if I told you that if you bring me your old car that I’ll give you a new car? Then I took your old car and had it detailed and brought back to you, handed you the keys, and pronounced “Here is your new car!” That would simply be a lie. That is just a cleaned up version of your old car. Although it may look better, under the hood it’s just the same old car.
That is why Paul said in Ephesians 6:21-24:
“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
Throw off the old and put on the new! I am going to say it again, “Until you are finished with the old way of life, you can’t enjoy the new life God has for you.
Are you finished with sin? Finished with the old way of living? Jesus rose from the dead to give you a new life. However, he can’t pour the new life he has for you into an old life that can’t contain it. Jesus compared it to trying to pour new wine into an old wine skin:
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”-Mark 2:22
New wine was always put into new skins, because as it fermented, it would expand stretching the wineskin. A brand new wineskins would be flexible and able to stretch, but an old one that had already been stretched, couldn’t stretch any further. To put new wine into an old wine skin would cause it to burst.
A cleaned up versing of your old sinful life cannot contain the amazing life God has for you. You have to let go of it, throw it off, and embrace the new life that Jesus has secured for your through His death, burial and resurrection.
Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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