A NEW START
By W. Frank Walton
Have you ever wished you could start all over again
and get a new start in life?
Recently, books like Reborn In The U.S.A. and How
To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found have been published,
dealing with how to change one's identity. The government's
witness protection plan has a process of changing an informant's
identity for their safety. They're relocated, given a new name,
birth certificate, social security number and maybe some altered
physical features. Criminals acquire new aliases to hide their
sordid past or illegal activity. They've discovered that you can
get a new birth certificate, and with this you can get a
driver's license, Social Security card and other
documentation needed for a new legal identity.
Yet, criminals live with the fear that their fraud
may be uncovered. I imagine a government witness against "The
Mob" lives in constant fear of being found.
A man's name was mistakenly printed in a
newspaper's obituary column. The man was furious and called the
paper. The embarrassed editor tried a little humor to calm the
man. "Cheer up! I'll put your name in the birth column tomorrow
and give you a new start on life!" Man is limited in what he can
do. This world often does not offer a second chance to start
again, much less a third or fourth. You've heard, "You only get
one chance to make a first impression" and "this time or else."
Cheer up! God is in the people changing business.
He wrote the original book on changing people. The Bible alone
reveals what we all yearn for at times: a fresh start on life!
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old
things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2
Corinthians 5:17).
What God offers is not a series of cosmetic
alterations but it is an internal spiritual change. In a right,
life-changing relationship with Christ, you can start anew. The
kingdom of Christ is the place of new beginnings. The gospel of
Christ is the gospel of the second chance. It has transformed
the lives of countless thousands in the past 2,000 years. The
gospel can alter your personality for the better.
A NEW BIRTH
The "good news" of the kingdom of offers a new
birth. As an accountable person, do you realize that you "have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)? Sin
means "to miss the mark." Sin is either actively transgressing
God's will (1 John 3:4) or failing to do the good we ought
(James 4:17). Sin is a moral cancer. Sin is why the world has
gone crazy. Your sin separates you from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).
This separation results in your spiritual death (Romans 6:23).
Yet, you can be spiritually reborn and adopted into
God's spiritual family. Jesus talked to a respected religious
teacher about this new birth. He said, "`Most assuredly, I say
to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.' Nicodemus said to Him, `How can a man be born when he is
old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be
born?' Jesus answered, `Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one
is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God'" (John 3:3-5). Nicodemus was familiar with the Jewish
religion, into which a child was physically born.
We can have a new start if we are spiritually born
again or regenerated. This is by the Spirit because the Holy
Spirit's revelation of the "word of truth" tells us what to do
(James 1:18). "For you have been born again, not of corruptible
seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and
abides forever" (1 Peter 1:23).
First, the Spirit tells us that in order to enter
the kingdom, we must come to Christ in a childlike faith or
humble dependence (Mark 10:14-15). You don't have to have it all
figured out, but you must put all your trust in the figure of
God's Son. Read about Jesus in the gospel accounts to produce
saving faith (John 20:30-31). A child is teachable.
Secondly, the Spirit also reveals that you must
repent of your sin in order to enter the kingdom of new
beginnings (Luke 13:3). John preached, "Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand!" (Matt. 3:2). Repentance is a total change
of mind concerning the course of your life. You see yourself
and your sin as God does, morally bankrupt and separated from
God. Such penitent poverty in spirit qualifies you for the
kingdom (Matthew 5:2). You realize you have a desperate
spiritual need. You've been going the wrong way and you cannot
go on like this. You need some help. You need to turn around to
the Lord (Acts 3:19). Also, the Spirit reveals that confession
of Jesus' deity is the next step "unto salvation" (Romans
10:9-10; Matthew 16:16f).
The new birth is "of water," because at the point
of immersion, you come up out of the water a new, forgiven
person by the blood of Christ (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1
Peter 3:21). I remember baptizing a young lady into Christ. She
said right after coming up out of the water, "I feel so clean!"
By faith in God's word, she was as pure and innocent as a new
born baby. God promised, "For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will
remember no more" (Hebrews 8:12) The burden of guilt is lifted!
A NEW LIFE
Salvation from your past sins offers you a new
lease on life. "Do you not know that as many of us as were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans
6:3-4). Your old past life of living in sin for self, the flesh,
the devil and the world is left behind in baptism's watery
grave. Jesus died as a substitute for our sins on the cross. We
die to the love and habitual practice of sin. Such is what got
us into so much trouble and turmoil in the first place! Someone
said, "What we once feared to give up is now a joy to
surrender." Christ was raised up to a new resurrected life. We
are raised up to a new life to glorify God. We're raised up "to
walk two inches off the ground" in a spiritually transformed
life. A faith that has not changed your life has not saved your
soul. "You are converted to a new life when you changed from
wanting what you want for yourself to wanting what God wants
from yourself" (C. E. Simcox). This is how God designed us to
work best.
A NEW PERSON
We become a new and better person by following the
Son of God. "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the
Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). If you lovingly look at the life of
Christ in the gospel accounts, you cannot help but become a new
and better person in every way. We become what we think about
most. Jesus lived the greatest life ever lived. He is the model
of a true human being. With Christ, you are not just a human
being -- you are a human becoming! He will change you from the
inside out. It's told a socialist once said in a speech,
"Socialism will put a new coat on a man." A person in the
audience, recently born anew, shouted: "But Jesus Christ will
put a new man in that coat!" The Lord of glory alone has the
power to help change us into a new person.
A NEW PURPOSE
Instead of getting caught up in the rat race of
life, you have can have new motivation. "If then you were
raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on
things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and
your life is hidden with Christ in Go" (Colossians 3:1-3). A
new, spiritual attitude makes life worth living. We have a fresh
perspective and see everyday things in light of eternity.
Everything physical will one day burn up (2 Peter 3:10-12). We
can say in the face of life's daily problems, "This too shall
pass." In light of our new spiritual focus, our trials shrink to
their true size. Living a Christ-centered life, we have new
resources to deal with difficulties. The Lord is greater than
any problem that we have.
Our new "citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians
3:20). We are just passing through this old world below.
"Everything that is not connected with eternity is eternally out
of date" (C.S. Lewis). The spiritual is more enduring and
satisfying than the material. In Christ's will, we find our
greatest peace and highest happiness. Our life can count for
something in the overall scheme of things. This world is the
classroom of eternity. God put us here for the purpose of our
moral development.
In this new start in the kingdom of new beginnings,
we know our work for Christ is imprinted with eternal
consequences. Many in the world do not grieve so much that they
must one day die but that they never really knew why they were
born. In Christ, we have a new start and a reason for getting
out of bed in the morning. To believe in heaven is not running
away from life. It is running to a reference point that here
gives all of life meaning.
A NEW HOPE
You can have a new hope of a happy life beyond the
grave. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that
does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter
1:3-5). We all came from somewhere and we are going
somewhere. Heaven will ever be new. Death and decay cannot
effect it. "He who sat on the throne said, `Behold, I make all
things new'" (Revelation 21:5).
A NEW FAMILY
The Lord has given us fellow Christians as our new
spiritual family. "Now that you have purified your souls by your
obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love,
love one another deeply from the heart" (1 Peter 1:22). There is
a congregation of the Lord's people nearby. They, like you,
yearned for a new start and found it in the gospel. They are
part of this kingdom of new beginnings. We realize that none of
us come from a spiritually perfect background. By a common
obedience to the gospel of Christ, we are a new family of
spiritual brothers and sisters. We need each other's love,
understanding and support. We have banded together as a local
church of Christ. We enjoy revitalizing worship, patterned after
the original simplicity and beauty of New Testament worship. Our
new mission is to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way.
You don't have to get a new social security number
to get a new identity. In a right relationship with Christ, you
have the opportunity to start life anew. This new start can
transform and guide your life.
Wishing you could have a new start in life? The
gospel of the second chance is freely offered. But hurry... this
offer may expire soon! We want to hear from you. We have begun
life anew. We offer a free, nondenominational Bible study in
your home. Contact us at WFrankWalton@juno.com.
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