Making Me New

I continue to see great evidence of God's gift of restoration. I see it in brand new marriages from broken relationships, in people walking confidently in God's grace despite a sordid past, and in the power of a radically transformed character. It's all reflective of the way God makes brand-new, beautiful things out of the rejected, discarded refuse of our life choices. Who couldn't fall in love with a heavenly Father who desires to do that for those He loves?

Corrective Therapy

So often we put our focus on avoiding one sin in particular. We decide we need to stop cursing, avoid lustful temptations, or watch our tongue. While it can be good to understand our weak areas and practice smart decision making, this can lead us to miss the bigger picture.

God isn't concerned as much with correcting small character flaws as He is capturing our hearts entirely for Him. He wants us to recognize that we aren't better people because we fix a few things in our behavior, but because He makes us better when we surrender to Him. He is calling us to a new, transformed life-not a better behaved version of who we've always been. Christ didn't come to behaviorally neuter us, but spiritually empower us to be different people entirely.

It's New

You wouldn't necessarily be able to tell by looking around my house, but I like new things. I like to buy new clothes, to snag the latest technology, the smell of a new car, and the initial attachment to something I haven't had before. New excites other people too--whether it's just new to us or brand new. 

I think that God's ability to make us new through Jesus is the most appealing aspect of His character. It's the way that He is able to take someone who is flawed & imperfect and mold them into something that is better than we imagined. He works through our hurts, our sordid pasts, the things that have been done to us, and our regrets to shape something beautiful. It's not always an easy process and it requires humility to submit ourselves entirely to the work God is doing. We have to learn to trust His passionate desire for us more than our nature to resist. 

Turning ugly into beauty doesn't just describe God's ability. It's the complete story of His creative genius and His detailed work to save us from ourselves. 

Transform vs. Transplant

My first car was a 1974 Ford Pinto-I bought it in 1989 and it only had 38,000 miles on it. It certainly wasn't the greatest of vehicles, but it was mine and it got me around town. As a young man however, I was was disappointed in the pick up of the car. Since it was a straight-four (not even a V6 for this bad boy), it didn't get off the line very quickly. I wasn't engaging in street racing, but it would have been nice if it got moving just a bit quicker.

I could have spent a lot of money fine tuning that engine. Put the absolute best parts on it, the highest grade of gasoline and the most expensive oil in it. I actually could have replaced the interior with leather seats and even added the best sound system that money could buy. Even if I did all of that I still wouldn't have won a street race with a Vespa. The problem is that the car would still have been a 1974 Pinto.

We face the same dilemma when it comes to following Christ. We spend a lot of time and effort in dressing up the old self when the first thing that God needs to do if we are going to be successful is to throw the old away and give us something new. Transformation of our soul is key as we continue to grow in Christ, but we have to let Him give us a heart transplant before we can start to be more like Him.


Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17