A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST (MARCH 18)

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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

NEW BEGINNINGS SHOULD BE WELCOMED INTO OUR LIVES. It is an exciting, strengthening experience to turn a corner and make a fresh start — and there is no more powerful new beginning than obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ, our starting over is so deep and complete that we are said to be a “new creation.”

Having died with Christ in baptism, we walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). And what does that mean? Paul described it in Colossians 3:1-17. We have new goals (v.1), new thoughts (v.2), and new habits (vv.5-16). With Christ as our Lord, we live under a new authority (v.17). And most important, having been forgiven of the sins that separated us from God, we live with a new hope (vv.3,4).

At baptism, we commit ourselves to actually living like what we have become: a new creation. Growing to maturity in Christ takes time. We can be encouraged by the fact that God will be patient. He will provide the help that is necessary. But if we don’t open our eyes and see what needs to change, we’ll be hindered.

Unfortunately, most of us fail to see how radical the surgery needs to be. We see ourselves as “good” people — we may stumble now and then, but basically, we think we’ve lived without any very serious errors. Yet nothing could be further from the truth (Matthew 3:7-9). We need more than a little polishing up; we need to be destroyed and completely rebuilt. There is only one word to describe what must be done: “re-creation.” If we’re going to be fit to live in God’s presence, we’re going to have to be “re-created.”

But in Christ, what needs to happen can happen. What God offers us is absolutely unique. There is nothing else like it in the world. So Peter appealed to his hearers in Jerusalem, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Act 3:19-21).

"In the natural world it is impossible to be made all over again, but in the spiritual world it is exactly what Jesus Christ makes possible" (Oswald Chambers).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

AN INDESTRUCTIBLE KINGDOM (MARCH 17)

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"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44).

THIS TEXT IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL GIVES US THE MAIN POINT OF A DREAM THAT DANIEL INTERPRETED FOR NEBUCHADNEZZAR, THE KING OF BABYLON. It speaks of a kingdom that God would establish in the days of the Roman Empire, a kingdom that would be unlike any other kingdom that had ever been known to mankind.

A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. If people thought the kingdom prophesied here was going to be just a more powerful type of earthly government, they were disappointed. When the King finally came, He did not set up a worldly regime: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting . . . But my kingdom is not from the world” (John 18:36).

A KINGDOM WHOSE RULE WOULD NOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SUCCEEDING RULERS. Unlike earthly kingdoms in which rulers are always replaced by other rulers, there would be no line of succession in this kingdom — “nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people” (RSV).

AN INDESTRUCTIBLE KINGDOM. The stability of this kingdom would be such that it “shall stand forever.” The ups and downs of history would not faze it, and no enemy could conquer it. With the Son of God as its King, this kingdom would be impossible to overthrow.

This kingdom, we now know, is the rule of God in Jesus Christ, inaugurated on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection. In Christ, we submit to this rule and are saved (Colossians 1:13,14).

When we consider the majesty of God’s plan to bring us back under the benevolence of His rule, we are struck with awe. And it is our privilege to honor Jesus Christ, “the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:5,6).

"Only when God hath brought to light all the hidden things of darkness, whosoever were the actors therein, will it be seen that wise and good were all his ways, that he saw through the thick cloud, and governed all things by the wise counsels of his own will, that nothing was left to chance, or the caprice of men, but God disposed all strongly and sweetly, and wrought all into one connected chain of justice, mercy, and truth" (John Wesley).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com

GOD’S PROMISE TO DAVID (MARCH 16)

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"When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom . . . And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

THIS TEXT IS ONE OF A HANDFUL OF OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Much that is said in the New Testament about Jesus Christ would be incomprehensible without an understanding of what it was that God was promising to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.

OFFSPRING. On the first Pentecost after Jesus’ death, Simon Peter, a pious Jew, affirmed that he and others were eyewitnesses of the fact that Jesus had been resurrected. And Jesus’ resurrection, he argued, fulfilled what the Scriptures had foretold about the much-anticipated Messiah. To make his point, he quoted Psalm 16:10, where David had said, “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2:25-28).

Now follow very carefully what Peter said next: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses . . . Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:29-36).

KINGDOM. God said to David, “Your throne shall be established forever.” Just as “offspring” meant more than David’s son Solomon, there would be more to David’s “throne” than the government of Israel. The kingdom of which God spoke to David would not be geographical but spiritual (John 18:36) — and this is the very kingdom over which Jesus Christ, the Messiah, now reigns. So if we’ve obeyed the gospel, we may gladly say that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13,14).

"The kingdom of God does not exist because of your effort or mine. It exists because God reigns. Our part is to enter this kingdom and bring our life under his sovereign will" (T. Z. Koo).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

For more information, visit http://AreYouaChristian.com