Today's Scripture
The New Me – 2 Corinthians 5: 17 – 21
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
RJ's Devotion
What the passage says
V.17 When we are reconciled with God, through Christ, we become a new creation. Even, we might not acknowledge the change, but there is a transformation that is happening from with in.
V. 18-19 It is all possible through Jesus Christ, who came to the world to reconcile the world with God.
V. 20-21 The reason God reconciles with the world is to have this message continue with others. We are called to the ministry of reconciliation.
What does the passage mean to me/us?
“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new” (v. 16-17 The Message).
It is hard to look past our outward appearances. The outward appearance tells a lot about the person.
However, the Bible says, ‘regardless of the past, when the person is reconciled with God, he or she is a new creation.’ The Holy Spirit is in work with the person. The inward transformation happens first, and maybe sometimes it might influence an outward change. Even though an outward change doesn’t occur, we cannot deny the inward change.
We need to remember the reason for this change. Ultimately, it is for us to become an agent of reconciliation. So many times, however, we see that we are prone to deny the change that is happening inwardly. By denying this call, we also, unintentionally deny the new creation God is forming within.
Prayer
Lord, help us to be aware of the transformation you are conducting in our lives. Work in us, actively, so we may serve the world proactively.
In Christ Name, we pray, AMEN
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