Christmas continues
2 Corinthians 5:17 is a familiar verse; it talks about being made a new creation through Christ. That's a lovely thought, isn't it? Your slate gets wiped clean; all the past is forgotten. But then what? Do we just sit around admiring ourselves in all our glorious newness? :) I never really thought about it before.
Today my devotional suggested I read 2 Cor. 5:17, but this time I didn't stop with just that verse. I read on, and here is what I read:
1) "All this is from God." We didn't make ourselves into new creations. It's God's work! Anything good and new in my life is from Him. But I'm not just the recipient of His good favor...
2) God "gave us the ministry of reconciliation." I've been made new so that I can participate in God's work of making everything new.
3) "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors." What a prestigious title - ambassadors! Christ was God in flesh, and now we are the ones who represent Christ to the world. This thought seems timely for Christmas. We've just celebrated Emmanuel, God with us; the Word made flesh; Jesus' incarnation as a tiny baby. God reconciled us to Himself through Jesus' perfect life and death in our place. He did all the work. Now He asks us simply to tell others about that work. I think this is how Christmas continues on, after we've taken down the lights and undecorated the tree. We pick up the work begun in Bethlehem, of showing God to the world and calling all to be reconciled to God.
Today my devotional suggested I read 2 Cor. 5:17, but this time I didn't stop with just that verse. I read on, and here is what I read:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."What stuck out to me?
1) "All this is from God." We didn't make ourselves into new creations. It's God's work! Anything good and new in my life is from Him. But I'm not just the recipient of His good favor...
2) God "gave us the ministry of reconciliation." I've been made new so that I can participate in God's work of making everything new.
3) "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors." What a prestigious title - ambassadors! Christ was God in flesh, and now we are the ones who represent Christ to the world. This thought seems timely for Christmas. We've just celebrated Emmanuel, God with us; the Word made flesh; Jesus' incarnation as a tiny baby. God reconciled us to Himself through Jesus' perfect life and death in our place. He did all the work. Now He asks us simply to tell others about that work. I think this is how Christmas continues on, after we've taken down the lights and undecorated the tree. We pick up the work begun in Bethlehem, of showing God to the world and calling all to be reconciled to God.
Comments
Post a Comment