A New Creation

 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV).

 

There have been a few times over the years when I have had to clean up after others indiscriminately dumped their garbage in places it simply didn’t belong. It is never acceptable to litter, but dumping garbage or other items on someone else’s land is even worse. I have found myself on more than one volunteer group with the assignment of walking the side of a stretch of road and cleaning up after folks. I’ve loaded bags of garbage, old refrigerators, washing machines, old tires, and all kinds of broken furniture into my truck for the trip to the dump.

 

One day when I was on my way to the dump in Tennessee, I stopped at a local Quick Mart along the route for a cold soda and a sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind me. When he first saw me, he became suspicious because he thought I was about to dump the garbage somewhere I shouldn’t. When he learned that I was actually taking it to the county dump after cleaning it up, his mood quickly changed, and he asked if I belonged to the church down the street. I said yes and in fact I was the pastor. We had a wonderful conversation from that point forward.

 

Jesus Christ similarly came into our “neighborhood” to clean up the mess in our world made by our sin. The Apostle Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v. 21). This clean-up action involved more than spending a little time hauling garbage. Jesus gave his life by dying on the cross to clean up our mess. This opened up a whole new identity for us to become “the righteousness of God.” Wouldn’t it be awful if we did not accept this incredible gift of love and service in our lives? Yet so many do just that. Turn your life over to him for the righteousness He provides for us. You can then have a new life!