New Birth part 5
I honestly don't think I'm doing this subject justice. Which is why I started this Rant series with a disclaimer. I truly don't believe we've even really started to understand what 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) is all about: "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" The KJV says we are new creatures. And, the verse I always kind of grasp at, Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Something completely NEW came from the death of everything OLD. The old man died in a watery grave and we were transformed into a New Man. CONFORMED, not to the world, but to the image of God's beloved Son. It drives me crazy when I see people--sincere people, by the way--trying as hard as they can to "turn over a new leaf." Trying... and failing. Because it's not a new leaf that we needed. We needed to be grafted into an entirely different tree! Adam--the old man--ate from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), and on that day he died. And since he was representative of all of humanity, on that day WE died. Then Jesus came--the New Man, the Tree of Life Himself--and He was lifted up from the earth on the cross. And He drew us out of Adam and into Himself. And He died. Which meant that WE died. Again. The second death. Where death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. The death OF death. So that we could have life. And not just life, but abundant life! Eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life. Jesus' life! A life filled with love. Which is what it truly means to live. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Not the same life that Adam had. Not trying to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows. Not listening to the lie (that says you have to do in order to be) and not looking for love in all the places. The old passed away. The old life is gone. A new life has begun. We can--and SHOULD--walk in newness of life. It's the idea of being "in" the world, but not being OF the world. It's the idea of being the window of heaven that God pours His blessings into, and through. It's loving others as He loves us. Not trying to get something, but HAVING something, and then sharing what we've got. Not trying to be someone we're not, but resting in the glorious truth of who we really are. And who we really are--because we are in Christ... because Christ is in us--is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. We were born from above. Given the Holy Spirit--the love receptor--so that we might know and believe, and receive and release, the love of God. So that we can experience Jesus' life as HE lives it in us, and through us, and as us. So that we can love others. Because that's what it's all about. It's all about love. And love isn't about getting anything. Love is about giving. Because love IS giving. Jesus GAVE His life for us, and He gave His life to us. Now we have it. We have been born again. We can live. We can love!