YOU ARE A NEW CREATION

You are the new Creation

I truly believe that everyone who comes to God has an inner desire to become a better person and strives to improve themselves.

We all want to be better versions of ourselves: better husbands or wives, better children or parents, better friends or neighbors, etc.

I also believe that one of the concerns of every Christian is how to have a pure heart, how to deal with sin in your life, to get rid of bad desires, bad motives, and to separate yourself from darkness.

I believe that each of us desires holiness, wants to walk in obedience to God’s Word and to please God. We like holiness, we hunger for holiness, we strive for the character of Jesus Christ.

People who come to God do not come to continue to sin or to continue to live the old life.

They come to experience real change!

And God has provided us with everything we need for this transformation.

More than 600 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Ezekiel spoke of the time in which we now live.

Let’s read Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NIV):

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws”

Ezekiel lived in Old Testament times, and the only way to holiness back then was through the Law. And clearly, that path didn’t work.

We see that Israel lived with God for hundreds of years - from Abraham to Christ, more than two thousand years - and yet we don’t see Israel really overcoming sin, becoming free from it, or achieving the holiness to which they were striving.

They had the Word of God, God lived with them (in the tabernacle or temple), and they followed the Law to try to change their character and become more like God in their thoughts, desires and motives.

But they kept falling, rejecting the true God, worshipping other gods, sinning, complaining, not believing, and so on.

The Old Testament idea of holiness, the Law, was based on fear: “You must defeat sin, you must sanctify yourself, and if you don’t, a punishment will come”

Although they had this strong stimulus, although they saw the consequences of breaking the Law and the bad things that happened to them, their hearts were still dark and sinful, and there was no change.

And that’s why God says through the prophet Ezekiel that a new era is coming, and the way of holiness, the way of overcoming sin, will be built on something completely different.

Today, in Christianity, there are two paths, two ways that people go to be sanctified, to become more like Christ. One is the Old Testament way of the law and the other is the New Testament way of grace.

The way of the law, fear and punishment didn’t work because when the heart is filled with sin, fear of punishment is not enough to change a person.

People continue to sin even when they know there will be consequences.

It’s like trying to get a thorn bush to produce figs. Even if you terrorize it with the threat of punishment, it can’t produce figs because its nature is to produce thorns.

That’s what happened in the Old Testament: people with a sinful nature couldn’t overcome sin and bear the fruit of righteousness.

Jesus talked about this in Luke 6:43-45 (NIV):

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.

People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings

evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart…”

But God knew how to fix it.

That’s why Jesus came to earth, to rescue those with a sinful, broken nature and give them the opportunity to be born again through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is what all denominations believe: that anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, as the Messiah and Son of God, is saved and born again and receives a new nature.

So when we are born again, we become new and an inner change takes place.

Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV):

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

God says this is how it will happen: “I will put my Spirit in you, I will give you a new heart”.

The New Testament way of sanctification is to believe that God has given us a new heart, a new spirit. Our nature has changed. We are no longer sinners whose fruit is sin; we are now righteous whose fruit is righteousness!

God says, “I will put my Spirit in you, I will take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and you will obey my decrees and keep my laws.”

What is the heart? It’s our views, our values, our emotions, our will, our memory. If our hearts are full of sin, we can’t live righteously.

God knew we couldn’t defeat sin on our own. A sinner can never bear the fruit of righteousness.

This is a very important truth to understand because many modern Christians don’t understand it.

They accept Jesus Christ, become children of God, and receive a new heart in accordance with God’s Word, but they still think of themselves as sinners.

They still think they have to defeat sin on their own and bring a changed life to God, but if we could do that on our own, Jesus wouldn’t have had to come.

People have been trying for over four thousand years. Even though God was with Israel and they had the Word of God, there was no change because we couldn’t do it on our own. But now Jesus has come, redeemed us from sin, curse and darkness, and given us a new heart.

The New Testament way is not a way of trying to prove something to God.

It’s a way of faith, a way of receiving from God, a way of trusting Him!

I am who I am because I am born in Christ. I just trust God’s word, I believe that my nature has changed and I am no longer a thornbush. Now I am a fig tree bearing figs.

Jesus said this in John 15:5 (NIV): “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me

and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

So instead of trying so hard to force ourselves to do something, we need to rest in this revelation, accept it and believe that the new heart God has given us will naturally produce new fruit.

By being obedient to God and His Word, believing that we are a new creation, we will naturally walk in His Word, fulfil His Word and have a new character like Jesus!

That’s what I want to say today: There is a big difference between a sinner who sometimes does the right thing and a righteous person who sometimes sins.

You are the person you associate with!

Imagine a person who is addicted to smoking, alcohol, or drugs. When they wake up in the morning, they say to themselves: “I am addicted to alcohol, drugs, or smoking, but today I will fight this addiction! I will do everything I can to battle it.” And their whole day becomes a fight. Every day, they live fighting this battle. If they succeed, at the end of the day, they feel tired from the fight and think that tomorrow will be another battle. When they wake up again, they say: “I am an addict, but today I will fight this.” But if they fail one day, it’s not a surprise for them or for others because this is expected from an addict.

Now, let’s make it closer to us. Let’s say I have some extra weight or want a healthier body. I have a choice: when I wake up in the morning, I can tell myself, “You’re an athlete, look inthe mirror and get yourself together! Go for a walk, do some exercise, eat more fruits and

vegetables, drink less soda!” Or I can say to myself, “You’re overweight, lazy, you lie on the couch all day, eat junk food, and drink unhealthy drinks.”

Here’s the point: if after some time you find yourself lying on the couch with chips and soda, watching the 10th episode of a series, by seeing yourself as an athlete, you’ll think, “How did I end up here? I should be out walking!” But if you see yourself as someone who doesn’t care about health, you’ll think, “No surprise, I’m here because this is who I am. I tried to be healthy, but I knew it wasn’t for me.”

And only you can decide whether you will believe God’s Word and accept yourself as righteous (even if you sometimes stumble and fall), or whether you will look at your wrong actions and consider yourself the same sinner you were before you met Jesus.

That’s what I believe, and you can believe it too:

I believe I was born again,

I was born for good works,

I was born for holiness,

I was born free from sin,

I was born to fulfil God’s Word,

I was born for eternal life,

and God made me righteous to bear the fruit of righteousness!

Vova Kaziuk