A New Nature

The usual start to the prayer meeting was to gather early, maybe make some coffee or share some type of snack and swap stories or events of the day or week. Typically the group would splinter off into sub groups as the gathering grew. Occasionally, however, the attendance would be smaller and everyone just stayed as one. It was during this time one evening, a well respected person, leader in the church, shared a story about how someone had done or said something that just made him angry and how he had responded to that person. He followed it up with a laugh and  the refrain “that’s just my nature” and many others laughed right along. This was considered to be normal and a part of being who we are. We can’t help ourselves. There could be many other stories that find themselves in a similar vein. 

Now before I, or we, get judgmental about this person or any other, I should remind myself (and us) that I, too, can be caught using the excuses “that’s my nature” or “I am only human” to make light of my behavior. So this isn’t an indictment of this person or others as much as an opportunity to explore how we should be as believers in Jesus. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

Paul is writing to the Corinthian believers about our role in reconciliation and how our former lives are dead and we now live new lives in Christ. He is encouraging them (and us) to see others through the lens of what Jesus has done. Who better to characterize a new, changed life than Paul. Once he was a devout religious man, believing he was doing God’s work.  Now we find him as a devoted follower of Jesus, doing the work for which God had called him. What I see here is that the human nature and characteristics of Paul had been reshaped by Christ. He was still the same man on the outside, still had the same devotion but, directed in a path that glorified God and served Jesus. 

We see a similar change in Peter. He had the opportunity to walk with Jesus during his ministry, hear his words, see his miracles, even perform some himself. Yet, in the heat of the moment, after vowing to never forsake Jesus, he denied him. But, as a new creation, filled with the Holy Spirit, that same “foot in mouth” person became a driving force. The same Peter that ran from the common people later stood before the religious elite and declared;

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19–20 ESV)

So what should we do? We need to put off the old life. It is easy to sit in our little comfortable circles and almost brag about how we treated others and yet, when we put these actions under the lens of Christ, they fall woefully short of who we should be in Him. I find myself in this boat quite often. We need to ask God to reveal in us where we are still clinging to the old nature and its behaviors, confess them to Him, receive forgiveness and maybe, if possible, even seek out forgiveness from those we have offended. Side bar here, we need to stop hiding behind our screens spouting off in ways that are not God honoring and Christ exalting. Before we post on any format, we should examine our hearts, our intent and emotions before “hitting that button”. 

Back on track, what should we consider? 

When God brought me to the church where I would become the youth pastor, the young lady, then in that role, and I had agreed that our theme for student ministry would come from this verse;

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”. (Luke 9:23 ESV)

It was our believe that this was the basis of living in the new nature of our new creation. As the ministry transitioned to younger leaders, that I had the privilege of mentoring, I encouraged them to maintain this as the theme. Funny story, a recent college grad came on board to be the youth pastor. He and I worked on ideas for the future of the group. One thing we did was solicit input from the students for naming the ministry so we could create tee-shirts for the students to wear to unify and grow the group. We built off this verse and strongly believed that our key word would be “abandon”. However, this looks bad on a tee-shirt. The logo was built around the idea but, seriously, “Abandon Student Ministry” does not send the right message. It does, however, create a great talking point. The tee-shirt idea did not make it long. I still have mine. 

The thought was and still is that we abandon our old nature for the sake of the new life we have  in Christ. “The old has passed away”. Until we do this, we are always going to come up short. It is not “cute” or “funny” when we let our old nature lead to bad behavior. Let’s walk in the new life. Let’s love others and see all humans as image bearers of God and share the good news of Jesus.  

In His Name

Scott