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A New Beginning

Romans 6:4-11

The Psalmist prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psa. 51:10, kjv).
God told Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you . . .” (Ezek 36:26, niv).
Paul said, “You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Col. 5:9-10, niv).

He also said, “As Christ was raised from the dead . . . so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
So, what does Newness mean? Newness means restoration and change. That’s what the Gospel is all about. Repentance means change! The New Birth means change; and New Life means change. Change is hard, but refusing to change can be deadly.

In 1968, the Swiss had eighty percent of the world’s market in watches. By 1980, the Japanese had eighty percent of the world market in watches. What happened? Well a revolutionary new watch movement was invented called “Quartz.” The Swiss rejected this “new way” of making watches and refused to change. But the Japanese saw its value and changed. Ironically, it was a Swiss engineer who invented the new quartz technology in the first place. He offered it to the Swiss watchmakers, but they were so confident in the old ways that they would not change. Now, they wish they had.

What’s the point? Change is inevitable. Change is necessary. Change can be good. Jesus said, “No man sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up takes away from the old and the tear is made worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles: else the new will burst the bottles, and the win is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles” (Matt. 9:17).

Kierkegaard said, “When God encounters man . . . (that) man’s destiny is decided. Here is the crucial moment of decision which determines whether a man shall come to his true self in God or remain a false self, deceived about his true status as a . . . child of God . . . The disciple must in this moment of the encounter be born a new creature. There must be a decisive change called conversion. He must leave his former state and enter into a new and different relationship, . . . When the seed of the oak is planted in earthen vessels they break asunder. When new wine is poured in old leathern bottles they burst; that’s why when God implants himself in humanity . . . that (individual) must become a new vessel and a new creature.”

Newness is essential. Make-overs won’t do. Someone said, “God creates. He doesn’t remodel.” Paul emphasized newness over and over again. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him . . . we should no longer be slaves to sin . . . Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him . . . For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:4-11).

Someone said, “Reformation is turning over a new leaf. Regeneration is receiving a new life.” Many Bible characters received new life that made radical changes in their behavior. Jacob is one of the most dramatic examples. He was changed from a deceiver and liar into the father of the Hebrew nation. After a struggle, he was told, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed . . . And he blessed him there. So Jacob . . . said, “I have seen God face to face . . .” (Gen. 32:24-30).

Have you had such a life changing encounter? Are you free of past baggage? Can you let go of old regrets and resentments? Paul said, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead . . . so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
How can we do this?

I. FIRST, WE CAN BELIEVE CHANGE IS POSSIBLE.

Some people don’t think they can change. We hear “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” But that’s not true. We can grow as long as we live. It’s never too late.

In 1939 a submarine was launched. But, on its maiden voyage it went to the bottom of the ocean and crashed. Twenty-six men were killed. This is an interesting story because even though that submarine sank, it was not totally destroyed. The government was able to salvage it, refurbish it and commission it to service again. In World War II it torpedoed a twenty-two thousand ton aircraft carrier of the enemy and destroyed it. The same ship that had gone down in horrible defeat rose again. Now, if a crippled ship can come back like that, surely those who are created in God’s image can come back.

Believing change is possible is the first step. That doesn’t mean forcing a few superficial outer changes. It means deep changes in our thinking, our attitudes, our interests and our priorities.

II. NEXT, WE CAN LET GO OF THE OLD.
Marianne Williamson wrote,“It’s amazing how resistant we are to newness. As uncomfortable as our life might be, as painful or even desperate at times, even so, the life we’re living is the life we know, and we cling to the old rather than try something new. It’s unbelievable how tenaciously we cling to what we’ve actually prayed to be released from.”

Paul said we must be willing to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God . . .” (Eph. 4:23).

The greatest problem is that we are creatures of habit. Our responses are automatic and our ruts of behavior are deep. A writer in Guideposts confessed his own reluctance to try new activities. He said, “My shopping was done, but my wife and daughters were going to be in the mall for at least another hour. I had been to my favorite shops: the hardware store, the book stall and the automotive place. So, I said to myself curiously, “I wonder what’s in those stores I’ve never seen?” Then for the next hour I strolled through these ‘foreign’ shops. In a ladies’ shoe store I got a lot of stares, but I also spotted a beautiful wall clock that gave me a design idea. In a toy store I found some packages of magnetic letters that were perfect for my bulletin board. In a sewing goods shop I came across some special tacks that I can use for wood working projects.

Then I got to thinking: I wonder how much I’ve missed because I’m a creature of habit and just stick with what’s familiar?”

In order to let go of the old we must have faith. No matter how we try, we will not be able to let go of the old and say with Jesus, “Not my will, but thine be done” (Matt. 26:31), until we believe that God’s will for us is good.
Surprisingly, repentance doesn’t require a concentration on the errors of the past with deep feelings of regret. Instead, it is simply a turning away from the wrongs and refusing to give them continued support in thoughts and feelings.

III. FINALLY, WE CAN ACT WITH THE NEW.
Action is crucial. Action is what replaces our old habits with new. It’s what changes our conditioning. It’s only when we act that we begin to feel at home with our changed nature. The more we do something, the more it becomes second nature.

God’s grace is free to all, but it can be consciously accepted only by those who have prepared to receive it. So, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment we must consciously reject all thoughts, feelings, memories and urges that do not support our highest spiritual nature. To grow spiritually we must be willing “to begin again.”

Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Cor. 5:17).
So what does newness mean? I like the statement attributed to a Frenchman in Napoleon’s era who had just become a British citizen. When he was asked, “What does your new citizenship mean to you?” he replied, “It means, that I woke up this morning having lost the battle of Waterloo, and I will go bed tonight having won it!” In other words, he was a new person with a new past, a new present and a new future. A Christian is a man or woman who is being recreated by God in order to live a new kind of life.

Paul said, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead . . . so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

A New Year is a perfect time for a new beginning. Jesus established a beautiful celebration to remind us of our new relationship with God. We call it the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Jesus said it represents the new agreement or covenant of God with His people. For us it is a memorial and a commitment.

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This issue of NEW PERSPECTIVES is from an unpublished manuscript © copyrighted 2008 by Miles and Maralene Wesner, Idabel, OK. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THEM IN ANY WAY YOU THINK IS APPROPRIATE. The only thing we ask is that you give credit for original material in PUBLISHED works.

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Miles E Wesner