17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5)
When Paul talks about our relationship with God through Christ, he pictures it as a totally new creation, a complete transformation. This spiritual makeover is both deep and pervasive - so extensive in fact that it extends to those around us. We have the opportunity to see not just our lives, but those around us, become right with and before God, so that we are right not only with Him, but with them. That's a whole lot of new. May we see it in this coming year.
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