2 Corinthians 5: 17, 19 (NIV) 17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone,
the new is here! … 20 We are
therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through
us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t just take us home to heaven the
day we are saved? After all, we are now just strangers on this earth. This is
not our home. Our home is in heaven. We no longer fit in here. We are just
passing through. One day, we will be home with God forever and will completely
fit in.
But God doesn’t take us immediately home because he has a job for us to
do. We are his ambassadors. We are his voice and his hands and feet. It is up
to us to share the good news and to minister to those in need. Paul, in this
passage, says “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” To be
reconciled is to become friends again. We were objects of God’s wrath because
of our sin nature, but we can be friends again when we are forgiven. That’s the
Gospel.
So God doesn’t take us home, he leaves us here. But we are no longer the
same. Now we are new creations. I like to think of a caterpillar turning into a
butterfly. It is the same creature, but it is no longer a caterpillar, it has
become a butterfly. God changes us into something new. We no longer crawl and
eat leaves. Now we fly and drink sweet nectar. We are the same, but not the
same at all. Now we are born again. Now we are a new creation.
Don’t tuck your wings and crawl like a caterpillar – you are not a
caterpillar anymore! You now have beautiful wings, use them and fly around God’s
garden. Let others know that they can change too. They can become new
creations. They can be born again.
Has God changed you into a butterfly? Are you a new creation? Then act
like it! Set your mind on things above, where Christ is. Become more and more
like him. Become the butterfly God intended you to be.
