The new year always brings with it a sort of implicit hope, a hope that this year might be better than the last. A hope for relief—a hope for change. I think this is a good thing, even though it may in reality be nothing more than a conditioned cultural response. After all, without a calendar, one day is no different from the next. Despite this, I think we all agree that every day is a new day, and more importantly, each day is an opportunity to change. It is good to consider what we could do today that may make tomorrow just a bit better than today for ourselves and others. This hope for a better tomorrow represents the soul of most Christian worship services. Which are often built around the ideas of self-reflection, confession of sin, and repentance (which is a change of direction).

But is Christianity simply a self-improvement exercise? Does self-improvement ultimately achieve what our eternal souls need? Can we really overcome our selfish desires through the efforts of self? Or are we in reality exchanging one form of self-centered living for another? Is there any way out of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” dilemma? I think this passage is my favorite meditation when I am reflecting on my inability to heal myself.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this:

From this passage it seems clear that change is not a function of our efforts; it is a function of our death and resurrection in Christ. Salvation is not the result of our efforts but of His. What’s more, our fallen natures and evil desires are not repaired; they are replaced. They are replaced by a wholly new creation. What we were no longer defines us, for we are not what we were; we are now something entirely new in Christ.

What does this mean in day-to-day life?

For a long time I took a primarily theological approach to this concept of death and new creation. It became more or less an abstraction and something with more eternal significance than day-to-day usefulness. However, I have learned over the years that for those sins that seem particularly stubborn, this idea is the difference between success and failure.

In practice, faith in Jesus involves faith in several things. When we say we are trusting in the “finished work of Jesus,” that work was his substitutionary death and his victorious resurrection. However, this passage tells us that his death was not his alone, but when he died, we all died with him. By his death we were therefore set free from the power of sin, because the person I used to be, the person who was a slave to desire and sin, died and is now a new creation in Christ. Faith in Jesus is believing all of that and more.

As we begin to truly accept that the death of Jesus was also our death, we are set free from the power of our old life and given the ability to live a new life. A life that was impossible for us while we were still enslaved to our various desires and sins.

Changing our thinking

This concept is a lot to take in, and our feelings want to say it ain’t so. But God says it’s true, so this passage also gives us a bit of instruction about how to get our head wrapped around all of this. Paul tells us, “From now on we know no one according to the flesh…”. This includes ourselves; we must no longer know ourselves according to the flesh. Who we were and the way we have always thought about ourselves are all irrelevant because we have died. That person I knew as me has died. Now I have to get to know that new person who was created in Christ as a son of God. I need to follow that new person as he grows up into that which God intended from the beginning. Consider the following:

But if Christ is in you,

So we can change and live a different life. But we can’t do this by our own efforts through our own corrupted desires and strength. God in Jesus has already restarted us. We now need to walk in this new life of the Spirit and put no trust in who or what we were. We must consider that old life dead to fully embrace the new life we have in Christ through the Spirit.

Giving this grace to others

This week let’s forget about trying to fix ourselves up and simply let that old life go while embracing our new identity in Christ. As we allow the grace of God the freedom to work in our lives, we need to remember that this same struggle is going on in our believing brothers and sisters. Paul said, “From now on we know no one according to the flesh.” By this he means our brothers and sisters in faith. Let’s refuse to know them according to who they were, and instead let’s call out who they are in Christ this week. Let’s refuse to identify them by the labels that used to define them but see them as new creations in Christ. We can all start over, and we can do it today if we have the courage to walk away from a life that is already dead. Step into a new creation that is destined for far greater things in Christ today.

Have a great week!