2 Corinthians 5:16-18 “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh; even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Today's episode talks about how God offered us a fresh start through His son. This fresh start is possible through the death of His son and forgiveness of our sins. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am Made New (Identity Series)
2 Corinthians 5:16-18 “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh; even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
When I read this verse, I really liked it. I love how it says we regard no one according to the flesh. The verse acknowledges, “ok, we know, we did this with Jesus,” but we learned our lesson, and we don’t do that any longer. I really like reading the message translation because it puts these verses in terms we would use today, and sometimes, I think it helps me understand the passage more or gives me a different understanding of the verse. It helps me to think of it in a way I might not have thought of on my own. It’s kind of like these podcasts. It takes the Word of God and then it shows how it applies to us in our everyday life. Sometimes, it is hard, with some of the language in the Bible, to understand what exactly they mean. If I have a verse that I don’t quite understand, I will usually go to the message translation and see what that says. That is usually enough to help me understand it. I want to read today’s verse from the message translation.
“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start and is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”
First, I want to say I wish this first sentence were true. I truly wish people didn’t judge others by what they have or how they look. How great would it be to live in a world where we don’t have to worry about what we have or how we look? How great would it be to know others weren’t judging us? Also, how great would it be to be able not to judge others or compare yourself to others? I have heard the quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I know this to be true. I know so many people who are feeling great, and then they hop on social media and see how well everyone else is doing, and they start to feel bad about themselves. They are judging others based on the small snapshot of their life they post on social media. When they compare their life to the lives of others, they decide they can’t measure up. They decide their life isn’t nearly as good as everyone else.
As much as I know this first sentence isn’t true for the majority of people in this world, what if we made it true for us? What if we stopped judging people by what they have and how they look? What if we started to be the change we want to see in the world? What if we prayed and asked God to work on us from the inside out? What if we asked God to help us stop judging others? When we read this verse, we see this is what God is calling us to. He is calling us to no longer judge people according to the flesh. It goes on to say, “Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. When Jesus was alive, he was judged by this world’s standards. He was mocked for his claim to be a king because He didn’t look like a king. However, He is no longer judged in this way. We now look at Jesus for who He truly is.
The verse goes on to say, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” I love the way the message translation says, “Anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges!” How many of us have felt that at some time in our lives? How many of us have felt we just needed a fresh start? This is possible through Christ. We don’t have to be the same people we always were. We don’t have to do the same things we have always done. We can start again. We can recreate ourselves. We might think this is a one-time thing. We found Jesus and now we get to start fresh. I don’t think this is true. I think we can choose at any point to start new, to say goodbye to our old life, our old ways and say hello to the new life that is made possible through Christ. What things in your life need to go so you can have a closer life in Christ? What things from your past are you carrying around when God wants you to let them go and let your new life emerge? Is it greed, anger, past hurts, jealousy, or judgment? Whatever it is, you can let it go now. God doesn’t want you to keep holding on to it.
Next, the verse says, “All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.” Adam and Eve corrupted the bond we had with God. Humanity had to live with the fact for a very long time and its consequences. However, God fixed this when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. God made it so we could be close to Him again, so the veil between us could be dropped. So why aren’t we closer to Him? According to this verse, God gave us a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. This is how we get that fresh start I was talking about earlier. When we bring our sins to God, He forgives them, and we are made clean again. The problem is we aren’t always bringing our sins to God. There may be many reasons for this; we may be scared He won’t forgive them, or we may be embarrassed or have shame around those sins. Shame is a huge weapon the enemy uses against us. If we feel ashamed of something, we probably aren’t going to want to talk about it, even to a priest, in some cases, especially to a priest. The enemy knows this keeps us stuck in our old life. The enemy knows if you won’t confess it, even just to God, then that sin still holds power over you. If you feel as though you could really use a fresh start right now, confess your sins and repent. God wants you to have a fresh new life. He wants to restore His relationship with you.
One of the last things this verse says is, “God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.” We are told this so often. We are Christ’s representatives. What we do matters. People are watching us and judging Christ by what we do. We are a reflection of Jesus. What if we were more cognizant of this fact? What if we examined our own behaviors and asked ourselves, “Am I doing a good job reflecting Christ to the world?” The verse also says God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. Are we doing this? Are our words and actions helping to bring others together or drive them apart? Do we get sucked into the gossip and join in instead of trying to stop the gossip? Do we get swept up in talking about all our differences instead of finding ways we are similar? Are we passing along the message of reconciliation, or are we condemning those that have sinned or are sinning?
I think one area that is hard for a lot of people is when they see their children doing things they know God does not condone. In this instance I think it is important to remember a fresh start is always available. Although we don’t need to condone these behaviors, I also don’t think pointing them out over and over again is helpful. We want to bring people together and not drive them away. If we could look at people through a Godly lens instead of a worldly one, I am sure we would see the world differently. God doesn’t love everything we do all the time, and yet He does love us all the time. Even when we are acting in ways God doesn’t like, He still showers us with love. We could learn a lot if we echoed this type of love. The only way to do this is to pray and ask God to teach us how.
I love the very last line of the message translations. It says, “We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.” How great is that? How awesome is it to know God is friends with us? Are we friends with Him? Think of your relationship with God. Is it like a friendship? Is it give and take? Do you listen as much as you talk? Is your relationship with God one in which you could sit and talk for hours with Him? Or, is it one where you feel He is the ever-judgmental Father and He is just looking for ways to punish you? This is not what God is all about. Does He believe in justice, absolutely and also, He believes in Mercy. God’s mercy is much bigger than His judgment. God wants to be your friend, will you let Him in? Will you accept his forgiveness of sins and get a fresh start in your life? Will you try to stop judging others for what they look like and what they have? Let’s join together to be Christ’s representative and share the Good News with all those who will listen.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to be your friend, show us how. Put on our hearts anything getting in the way of this, and then give us the strength and wisdom to change it. Lord, help us to no longer regard others according to the flesh. Please help us to accept your forgiveness of sins and start fresh again. Help us to be your representatives to bring people together instead of encouraging this divisiveness. We love you, Lord, you are so amazing! You are the Messiah, You are the fountain of life, you are the Holy One of Israel. We are so grateful for all you do, and we ask all of this in Jesus’ holy name and according to your will, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in July 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I call you all by name. I know each one of you. You are to move with confidence when times are hard. Always believe that I am there for you.”