Rebirth
This week is on Ephesians 4:20-24:
In philosophy classes across the world, the teacher always likes to do the 'born a second ago' exercise with people, where you try to prove that you can't tell whether time existed before right now. Movies explore the idea: What if you were a robot, or a clone, created with a lifetime of memories, but only months old? They're counterfeits of the idea of being born again, of being a new creation while still being an adult with a lifetime of memories and experiences.
Paul likes to use the term 'old man' to describe the pre-born-again self. In a lot of ways, there are many 'old men' in our lives. When you got saved as a Christian, you can mark the pre-Christian and Christian phases of your life. When you gave up smoking, maybe there's the old 'smoker' you and the current 'non-smoker' you. Repentance is the act of drawing that line. It says, "I am a new, free, creation." When Jesus forgives us, we're brand new.
The term 'old man' is also used in the Bible when Zechariah hears about his wife being pregnant. He says, "But I am an old man." Paul's terminology about sin can also apply here. Zechariah's "old man" body, before God touches him, can't get his wife pregnant. He gets his wife pregnant anyway, though, not because of some surgery or incredible good luck, but because God can make things new again, and fix that which doesn't work, or which never worked in the first place. It's pretty cool that the messenger sent to proclaim Jesus' arrival is the offspring of a man renewed by the touch of God. If John the Baptist was full of crap about God's ability to renew us, he wouldn't have existed in the first place!
So, what happens when God forgives and renews us? We're new creations as well. So how come we still have our lives and our memories and all of that? Shouldn't we be small, and wearing diapers? If God's reset everything, shouldn't everything be reset? How come, when we are forgiven, and when we ask to start fresh, we still have that creaky knee, and the expensive phone bill, and the nice house, and the vacation scheduled to some warm resort? God allows us to keep who we are, and what we have. He allows us to keep our personality, and our memories, and our friends and family. Those are part of who we are and what we've been blessed with. We're sort of like Jason Bourne, finding the safe full of money, and the nice apartment, and the skills and experiences, but without having to suffer the memory loss. (And usually without the CIA trying to kill us.) We get a new start without having to grow up all over again.
God has the ability to create us anew. We can put away the old man who has gotten us this far, because we can become new people in Christ. All cosmic accounts are settled. The old you may have had quite a distinguished history in sin, but when you repent, and are forgiven, the new you doesn't have to continue in it. You're freed from that. You awaken in a fully-stocked life, ready to begin living, just like a baby takes his first breath in a body that's already formed. It's great!
Don't allow the "old man" to limit what God can do in your newness. Everything Zechariah knew about his old man body said that he was beyond childbearing age. Everything he knew about his wife's old woman body said the same thing. Is that the last word on the topic? Or is God allowed to start something new? With God, all things are possible.
Don't allow your resemblance to the "old man" limit your relationships with others. Maybe the old man was a liar. Maybe the old man stole from people, or wasn't very nice, or was a dirty dirty whore. Is that how the new man was created as well? Was your repentance a squib because nobody else heard it happen? Or is the old man dead, and the new one born? Are you going to let life turn new back into old, or are you going to let God turn old into new?
God has given us a really good gift: to be able to start over. We can become a new and improved creation. We can have our broken things fixed. God is awesome.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
In philosophy classes across the world, the teacher always likes to do the 'born a second ago' exercise with people, where you try to prove that you can't tell whether time existed before right now. Movies explore the idea: What if you were a robot, or a clone, created with a lifetime of memories, but only months old? They're counterfeits of the idea of being born again, of being a new creation while still being an adult with a lifetime of memories and experiences.
Paul likes to use the term 'old man' to describe the pre-born-again self. In a lot of ways, there are many 'old men' in our lives. When you got saved as a Christian, you can mark the pre-Christian and Christian phases of your life. When you gave up smoking, maybe there's the old 'smoker' you and the current 'non-smoker' you. Repentance is the act of drawing that line. It says, "I am a new, free, creation." When Jesus forgives us, we're brand new.
The term 'old man' is also used in the Bible when Zechariah hears about his wife being pregnant. He says, "But I am an old man." Paul's terminology about sin can also apply here. Zechariah's "old man" body, before God touches him, can't get his wife pregnant. He gets his wife pregnant anyway, though, not because of some surgery or incredible good luck, but because God can make things new again, and fix that which doesn't work, or which never worked in the first place. It's pretty cool that the messenger sent to proclaim Jesus' arrival is the offspring of a man renewed by the touch of God. If John the Baptist was full of crap about God's ability to renew us, he wouldn't have existed in the first place!
So, what happens when God forgives and renews us? We're new creations as well. So how come we still have our lives and our memories and all of that? Shouldn't we be small, and wearing diapers? If God's reset everything, shouldn't everything be reset? How come, when we are forgiven, and when we ask to start fresh, we still have that creaky knee, and the expensive phone bill, and the nice house, and the vacation scheduled to some warm resort? God allows us to keep who we are, and what we have. He allows us to keep our personality, and our memories, and our friends and family. Those are part of who we are and what we've been blessed with. We're sort of like Jason Bourne, finding the safe full of money, and the nice apartment, and the skills and experiences, but without having to suffer the memory loss. (And usually without the CIA trying to kill us.) We get a new start without having to grow up all over again.
God has the ability to create us anew. We can put away the old man who has gotten us this far, because we can become new people in Christ. All cosmic accounts are settled. The old you may have had quite a distinguished history in sin, but when you repent, and are forgiven, the new you doesn't have to continue in it. You're freed from that. You awaken in a fully-stocked life, ready to begin living, just like a baby takes his first breath in a body that's already formed. It's great!
Don't allow the "old man" to limit what God can do in your newness. Everything Zechariah knew about his old man body said that he was beyond childbearing age. Everything he knew about his wife's old woman body said the same thing. Is that the last word on the topic? Or is God allowed to start something new? With God, all things are possible.
Don't allow your resemblance to the "old man" limit your relationships with others. Maybe the old man was a liar. Maybe the old man stole from people, or wasn't very nice, or was a dirty dirty whore. Is that how the new man was created as well? Was your repentance a squib because nobody else heard it happen? Or is the old man dead, and the new one born? Are you going to let life turn new back into old, or are you going to let God turn old into new?
God has given us a really good gift: to be able to start over. We can become a new and improved creation. We can have our broken things fixed. God is awesome.
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