II Cor 5:16-21 – So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we see Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right through Christ.
For the last 20 years, II Corinthians 5:17 has been my life verse. I lived 30 years without Him, and made a complete mess of things. From the moment I said yes to following Him in the fall of 1998 until now, the reality that I had been given a brand new beginning never left me. He has been faithful to renew, recharge, and rearrange all that I was into something many who knew me even five years ago might not recognize.
Being made a new creation is something I embrace daily along with His new mercy, strength, and forgiveness. I lay down at night thankful He has seen me through another day, and trusting that He will give me another chance to be better and more like Him in the morning.
This morning, my devotional took me to this passage, and I realized He was about to make me new – again. Verse 17 is powerful and is a promise I will continue to claim and be thankful for the rest of my life, but it is the rest of the passage I want to live by in the coming months and years.
Verses 16 through 21 have been hanging on my bathroom mirror for more than two years. It is a reminder that yes, I AM thankful He made me new, but He did it for a bigger purpose than simply changing MY life.
Last year, I spent a lot of time in prayer and study learning how to stop evaluating others from a human point of view. I asked God to help me see people the way HE sees them, and I am so very thankful He did and continues to. A gift I can’t begin to comprehend!
But – it is not a gift simply for gift’s sake. He freely makes us new and gives us the ability to see people the way He does for a reason, listed in verse 18.
“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him.”
The gifts were given to equip us to complete our task – reconciling people to God.
This passage in II Corinthians 5, all of it, has become my life verse. We are called out of our old life not to save us from bad things, but so that we can hear and answer His call to be like Christ.
II Corinthians 5:19-20 – For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
Every November I ask God to give me a word for the coming year.
2019 is “Reconcile.”
And that is my message for 2019.
He knows you. He loves you exactly as you are. He forgives you. He has taken away the condemnation the world and the enemy want you to carry for being who you are.
Be reconciled. Be made new for 2019.
All you have to do is come to Him.