What’s New?

Gordon Crook

A common greeting might be: “What’s new?” The expectation is to get updated on the other person’s life since the last meeting. However, I thought that a good reply might be: “I am.”
If you are a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are new. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. We are new because we have the new life of Jesus. He doesn’t just patch up the old, He makes all things new.
Too many want to hang on to the old, attempting to fix it up and make it look good. This may be acceptable if we are talking about an old piece of furniture or an old house, but it is not a good thing to do concerning our lives. Much better is to let the new life of Jesus take over changing us from the inside.
In the natural, sometimes we like the looks of something old, or maybe we like an old item because it is nostalgic. Let us not become nostalgic about the old nature. The old nature is not good or useful, and has no beauty at all. God offers us something completely new and significantly better. Why would we turn that down to keep the old, rotten, worthless, damaged old creation. Romans 6:4-6; 7:6.
With the new life of Christ that we have, we find many things renewed. A new attitude, a new hope (expectation), a new view of life and death, a new desire to serve God instead of ourselves. Many new things come about as a result of allowing the new life of Christ to take over.
This is not a “one and done” thing. There is a constant yielding to be done so that the life of Christ can truly rule in us. We need to be renewed in our mind by taking in the Word of God. While we have the life of Christ, we also have an old nature that wants to take over and have its way. So, day by day we are yielding to the new life that is changing us from glory to glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
So, why choose the new over the old? The old is corrupt and useless. It cannot bring us to God. It cannot be improved. “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;” Ephesians 4:22. The old is unrighteous, the new is righteous. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:” 1 Corinthians 1:30. The old leads us away from God, the new leads us to God. The old is riddled with sin, the new cannot sin.
So, when someone asks you “what’s new,” you can think about how you are new because of Jesus Christ. This is not just some nice philosophy, it is a reality that we can choose and it brings real change to our lives instead of just the same old thing again and again.I encourage you to yield yourself to the new life of Christ that dwells in you, and if you do not yet have that new life, that you ask God and receive in faith believing God’s promise.