God Offers a New Beginning

My theme this week is a new beginning. I’ll be sharing with you how you can step out of your past into a totally new way of life.

How many times we hear people say such things as, “I wish I could start all over again.” Perhaps it may be in reference to marriage, or to the raising of their children, or to the choice of a career. Or they might say, “I wish I’d never done that, or said that, or met that person,” and other things like that. Or perhaps they’ve made a New Year’s resolution, and it’s gone down the drain almost before it was out of their lips. Or they vowed to turn over a new leaf, or in some cases to give up a specific evil habit, such as smoking, or overeating, or the use of bad language. All such expressions that people use indicate a longing for a new beginning.

In this series of talks, I’ll be sharing with you two vital, interrelated facts. First, we all need a new beginning. Second, God offers a new beginning to all of us.

Interestingly, the Bible culminates with God’s promise of a new beginning to everyone who will meet the conditions. It’s almost as if, in one sense, this is the crown, or the culmination, or the summit of the Bible’s message. In Revelation chapter 21, verses 5 through 8, we read these words out of the vision that was granted to John on Patmos.

“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new.’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’”

Let me interpolate there. I think when John heard the one who was on the throne say, “I am making everything new,” somewhere inside him there was a reaction, “Could that really possibly be?” And the Lord, who knows what each one of us is thinking, let alone what each one of us is saying, then responded to that reaction in John and said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. You can rely on me and what I’m saying.” Now I continue reading in verse 6.

“He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.’”

Let’s look at the following facts about those remarkable words. First of all, the promise to make everything new comes from the one seated on the throne. And that throne is the throne of government over the entire universe. So the one who makes that promise has total control over everything that takes place in the universe, including our lives. It’s not just a suggestion, it’s a statement of divine authority. “I am making everything new.” And the statement comes from the throne. It’s an edict. It’s a declaration of what is going to take place that will affect and encompass the entire universe.

Secondly, as I’ve already pointed out, the one who sits on the throne himself guarantees the statement. He says, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” If I may say so, reverently, it comes with a written guarantee. A written guarantee from the Lord. He’s going to do it.

And then third, we need to see that the one who makes that statement and offers with it the guarantee is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I’m sure most of you are aware that alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and omega the last. So, in saying that, he says, “I encompass everything.” And then he makes it perhaps more specific, “I am the beginning and the end.” In other words, whatever I set in motion, I am able to bring to completion. There’s a thought that’s come to me many times recently that God never started anything that he wasn’t fully capable of bringing to completion and consummation. It’s true in our lives personally. And we read elsewhere in the New Testament, “Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith.” In that sense again, he’s Alpha and Omega. What he starts in us, he is perfectly capable and willing to complete.

What are the requirements on our side? What is needed from us? I would suggest two things, both of them very simple. First of all, you have to acknowledge your need. You have to acknowledge that inner longing that you have for a new start. You can’t cover up. You mustn’t seek to excuse or change the facts about your past. If your past is really not so bad, then why do you need a new beginning?

That requires, I believe, humility. Many of us perhaps are confronted by this opportunity, and we turn it down simply because we’re not willing to acknowledge our need. I remember many years ago when I was confronted by this. And I remember how I was torn between my pride and my sense of need. I thank God that, by his grace, eventually, my sense of need won out over my pride. And then secondly, to appropriate what God has promised, you have to respond with faith. Scripture says, “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” There is no way to enter into this offer of God until we set our hearts and minds to believe God. And it may surprise you, but I really believe that, ultimately, faith is not a matter of the mind or of the emotions. It’s a matter of the will. You have to decide that you’re going to believe God. Set your will to believe him.