From the Pulpit: New creation in Christ
One thing that I love about the months of May, June, and July is watching the country fields go from expanses of death and decay with last fall’s harvest of dead grain stalks lying in the brown fields to the lush green corn and beans fields. By this time of the summer, the corn is way beyond the “knee-high” stage and is up over our heads so, that if we walk into the corn field a few rows, it’s like walking into the “field of dreams” and you disappear. (That will be helpful, by the way, for thousands of bicycle riders who will be riding their bicycles across the state of Iowa who may need to “take a break”, and can’t find any restrooms nearby as they ride past thousands of corn fields during last full week of July.)
When I see the life and vitality of the green fields as I ride my bike or drive through the countryside, I am reminded of the life and vitality that we receive from the One who created us. The Apostle Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, the fifth chapter: “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.” Without Christ, our lives look like the country fields in the middle of February, where we see the decaying corn and bean stalks that are left from last fall’s harvest. But with Christ in our lives, God gives us life and vitality. In Christ, as Paul tells us, there is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come. Without Christ, sin rules in our lives and death has the last word. But when we are in Christ, we are made new – new each day, new by His grace and mercy. Without Christ we are separated from God, but Christ reconciles us to God by taking our sin from us and giving to us His righteousness instead. In and through Jesus Christ, we are a new creation.
