July 5, 2019
“A New Creation” (Galatians 6)
Galatians 6:15 (The Message) “Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!”
Paul Tillich says…
“If I were asked to sum up the Christian message for our time in two words, I would say with Paul: It is the message of a "New Creation."
Martin Luther wrote…
“Since circumcision and uncircumcision are contrary matters we would expect the Apostle to say that one or the other might accomplish some good. But he denies that either of them do any good. Both are of no value because in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avail anything. A new creature is one in whom the image of God has been renewed. Such a creature cannot be brought into life by good works, but by Christ alone. Good works may improve the outward appearance, but they cannot produce a new creature. A new creature is the work of the Holy Ghost, who imbues our hearts with faith, love, and other Christian virtues, grants us the strength to subdue the flesh and to reject the righteousness of the world.”
Paul writes elsewhere…
2 Corinthians 5: 17…”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Jesus said, you can’t put new wine in an old wine skin. Why not? Because the new wine will bust the old skins and all will be lost. New wine is alive with fermentation and it needs to expand. Old skins are brittle and can’t flex enough to withstand the pressure of the bubbling of the new wine.
God has made us new; thoroughly new, to our very core new, and that is a wonderful and marvelous thing. The gospel makes all things (all parts of us) new. It’s not just an external make-over…it’s an overhaul, a total re-build. And it is new life…yes life….full of energy and excitement that bubbles up through us as the Holy Spirit breathes into us.
In Christ we are made into a new creation!!!
Blessings,
Pastor Mike
“A New Creation” (Galatians 6)
Galatians 6:15 (The Message) “Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!”
Paul Tillich says…
“If I were asked to sum up the Christian message for our time in two words, I would say with Paul: It is the message of a "New Creation."
Martin Luther wrote…
“Since circumcision and uncircumcision are contrary matters we would expect the Apostle to say that one or the other might accomplish some good. But he denies that either of them do any good. Both are of no value because in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avail anything. A new creature is one in whom the image of God has been renewed. Such a creature cannot be brought into life by good works, but by Christ alone. Good works may improve the outward appearance, but they cannot produce a new creature. A new creature is the work of the Holy Ghost, who imbues our hearts with faith, love, and other Christian virtues, grants us the strength to subdue the flesh and to reject the righteousness of the world.”
Paul writes elsewhere…
2 Corinthians 5: 17…”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Jesus said, you can’t put new wine in an old wine skin. Why not? Because the new wine will bust the old skins and all will be lost. New wine is alive with fermentation and it needs to expand. Old skins are brittle and can’t flex enough to withstand the pressure of the bubbling of the new wine.
God has made us new; thoroughly new, to our very core new, and that is a wonderful and marvelous thing. The gospel makes all things (all parts of us) new. It’s not just an external make-over…it’s an overhaul, a total re-build. And it is new life…yes life….full of energy and excitement that bubbles up through us as the Holy Spirit breathes into us.
In Christ we are made into a new creation!!!
Blessings,
Pastor Mike