At Christmas we celebrate Jesus’ coming to earth as a humble babe, and we give gifts just as the Wise Men did. We say that He is the greatest gift, and that’s true. I’d like to unpack that a little.
First, Jesus came to show us who God the Father really was. He said if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father (John 14:9). Second, He came to pay the price we could never pay to reconcile us to the Father through His death, burial, and resurrection. But the third thing is the most astounding – He came to completely change us. Not just when we get to heaven, but in the here and now.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” So how “new” are we when we come to Christ?
I think Jesus Himself gives a clue in Luke 5:37-38. He said, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” I believe He meant that we’re not just an old wineskin (the old man) that’s been cleaned up a little bit and filled with new wine (the Holy Spirit), but that we’re brand-new wineskins. If we were still the old man, we wouldn’t be able to hold the Holy Spirit. So He had to make us new. That was His plan all along, even before time began. Years before Jesus came to earth, God said in Ezekiel 11:19-20 and Ezekiel 36:26-27 He would replace our old heart of stone with a heart of flesh, and give us a new spirit, His own Spirit. If you’ve come to Christ, you’re a totally new person, reconciled to God, and able to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it. And who am I to tell Him that His death and resurrection wasn’t enough?
As we begin this new year, I hope you’ll walk in the new beginning that God has given you. You are a new creation, changed from sinner to saint, from slave to son or daughter. You belong to Him, and are precious to Him.
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