BECOMING A NEW PERSON
Jenna Worsham
Today’s Scripture: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV
Theme: You have a new life with Christ.
TRANSFORMATION STORIES
A dramatic transformation story turns heads. It’s why HDTV draws views with repeated home transformations. What looked like a broken-down old place turns into something new and beautiful. Its why personal makeover stories are compelling. What looked like a person without the right clothes or look becomes the envy of every viewer. We have to see the “before” and “after” pics for that “wow” factor.
When dramatic changes happen, we think that lives change, also. I have seen renovation stories end with a summary of how a marriage was healed, a loss was consoled, or a family could start over all because of the transformation. We believe it. If only I could have my own personal makeup artist, trainer, chef, and wardrobe manager, my life would change, also! Or would it? Behind the surface, nothing has changed.
WHAT IS SO DIFFERENT?
As our dirty, sixteen-passenger vans trundled back from my first international trip to serve an orphanage and a jail in Mexico, I felt profoundly changed. I couldn’t look at things I owned (way too many) or myself (quite spoiled) the same way any longer. The children and adults I encountered on that trip taught me about plenty, contentment, and joy through building relationships with them and observing their own poverty (material) and plenty (spiritual and relational).
However, as we unloaded our dirty bags and smelly bodies to return home with our parents, it was obvious that the world we left hadn’t changed. We still had much more than we needed and yet those material things didn’t satisfy. I couldn’t help thinking of the generosity I received from people who didn’t have material wealth. They offered us food, helped us try out our broken Spanish, and spent every day we were there in community with us. There was richness in their worship and soul in their church services, despite the lack of air conditioning or comfortable seating. Nothing back home felt right anymore, and yet the old patterns and opportunities hadn’t disappeared either.
THE OLD LIFE IS GONE
In 2 Corinthians 5, there are a few verses that talk about becoming a new person. “If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit” (2 Corinthians 5:13, NLT). This reminds me of “Go Bananas” at The Cove. We remember that series in our church history so often because of how it changed us. It may really have appeared that we had gone crazy.
“Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that we have all died to our old life” (2 Corinthians 5:14, NLT). Controlled by love, not by our own preferences. That is a new way of living. We will “no longer live for ourselves” (2 Corinthians 5:15, NLT) “we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view” (2 Corinthians 5:16, NLT). Our perceived sanity, our motive, what controls us, and our way of evaluating others and God all change. Thus, when we read: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT). The whole section of scripture can be recalled. The old way of thinking, feeling, evaluating and living is gone, replaced by a life in service to Christ.
Make It Personal: If you claim to “belong to Christ” in what ways do you have a “new life?” How does the old life try to stake a claim on you? Review the ways that we are made new with Christ as found in the verses from 2 Corinthians 5 selected above and repeated in the “read” section below.
Pray: Father God, help me to love people close to me, far from me, known, and unknown. Help me to go crazy with generosity, love without reservation, and evaluate others from Your point of view. My old life has no claim on me anymore, because I am a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun. Let it be so. Amen.
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:11-18
Weekly Memory Verse: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11, ESV