Old Life Gone

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

2 Corinthians 5:17

JULIE LISTENED RAPTLY to the Bible study leader. She called herself a seeker and wasn’t really sure about this “Jesus thing.” But as she listened to the leader talk about this passage, something ignited in her. She so wanted to be a new person. Her life was filled with bad decisions, mistakes, and sins she knew she never should have committed, and she wished for a new start.

She held up her hand. “Is this what being born again is all about?”

“Absolutely,” the teacher responded. “Just like a newborn baby, unseen before, so God in Christ starts us over at that moment, and we are new on the inside.”

Julie immediately said she wanted that—she would become a Christian if someone showed her how. The leader led her in prayer, and from that day on, Julie was a new person, with different values, different desires, and a new power to overcome her old ways.

The promise here is not just that you get a new start in life, or a second chance. No, Paul says you become utterly new on the inside. You are no longer an unforgiven sinner, broken, full of guilt, insecure, and struggling with all kinds of sins. Instead, God takes you and leads you in a totally different direction. Your life will never be the same again.