In the previous part, we’ve read Ephesians 2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. The important word that we have to lay hold of in that verse is the word “created.” “Created” in Christ Jesus. If we’re ever going to become what God wants us to be, it has to begin with a creative act of God. We have to let God recreate us out of what we were into what He wants us to be. Psalm 51 records the prayer of David when he was brought face-to-face with his own terrible sin. In verses 9 and 10, he says this:
“Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Notice that cry of David’s heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” It takes a creative act of God to deal with the effects of sin in the human heart and life. When the sinner comes to God, God does not improve him, reform him, adjust him, tamper with him. God, by His mighty power, creates him anew.
Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:1720:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors...”
What a glorious statement! “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” How many times you and I have said, “If only I could start all over again. I’ve made a mess of the past, I regret so many things I’ve said and done.” The good news of the gospel is that you can start all over again. If you will come to God and put your faith in Him through Jesus Christ, He will make you a new creation. You will be able to say, “The old has gone and the new has come.” And if you’ve already come to God through Jesus Christ then you need to know and understand what you are. You are a new creation. God intends to make you into a masterpiece.
As I see it, there are three successive phases: First of all, sin must be dealt with. Sin is the great barrier between God and man. As long as sin remains undealt with in our lives we have no access to God. And furthermore, God has no access to us in the way that He needs access to change us from within by that creative act that we’re speaking about. So, first of all, we have to let God deal with sin. We have to turn from our own rebellion and selfwill and stubbornness and we have to come to God through Jesus Christ, believing that Christ, on the cross bore the penalty for our sins, that God judged our sin in Christ, and that as we turn to God for mercy and forgiveness through Christ, we are reconciled to God. And in this way sin is taken away. We have access to God, God has access to us.
Thank You Father, that I am a new creation, in Your Son Christ Jesus. Thank You that You create in me a clean heart, and that You renew a steadfast spirit within me. Thank You that I could start all over again, with You, completely new, reconciled, forgiven, justified. Help me to stay on Your path, to know, each and every day, that I am a new creation, through grace, in Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ Name, amen!
