2 Cor. 5:17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
Paul is explaining to the Corinthians how life with Jesus is markedly different than life without Jesus. Prior in verse fourteen, Paul contends that as a believer, it is now Christ’ love that controls us and that we have “died to our old life.” Those are some strong descriptions of our life as followers of Jesus! Our old life is a distant, dead memory. Everything is new. Everything is different for a believer. In fact in verse twenty, Paul goes so far as to say that we are not merely new persons, but that we are indeed his ambassadors to this world! We go from being far from Christ, to being reconciled to Christ, to working for Christ-and it’s all because of Christ!
Life with Jesus is different. It should look different, sound different, and feel different. There should be something very different about how I live compared with how I used to live. Jesus doesn’t just make some minor adjustments to our lives, he overhauls them completely! So, can people see the difference in my life? Can the people I know see Jesus in my life? Am I truly different? It’s one thing to say I believe in Jesus, and go to church, and say all the right things. But am I truly different? Have I allowed Jesus to change my entire life? Have I died to my old self and truly become a new person?
Dear Jesus, thank you for my new life! Help me to daily become more and more like you. Amen.
