We are New Creations in Christ

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.