Many people look at the NEW YEAR as a chance for NEW BEGINNINGS. We tend to make lists, at least mentally, of things we want to accomplish in the New Year – weight loss, more exercise, more time with family, new commitment at our jobs, pay-off debts, renew old friendships, the list goes on…
Life is full of New Beginnings:
- Birth of a child/grandchild
- High School graduation
- College graduation
- First job
- Marriage
- First child
- Retirement
These are all part of life.
However, the most important New Beginning any of us can experience is spiritual.
The Apostle Paul wrote of this New Beginning in Romans 6:3-6 (KJV), “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”
This New Beginning puzzled Nicodemus in John 3:3-7. He was thinking physically, but Christ was teaching of a spiritual New Beginning. Nicodemus was told he must be “born again”, a New Beginning. As we saw in Romans 6:3-6, Paul tells us this new birth is made possible by being baptized into Christ. Paul also teaches in Philippians 3:13-14 that part of this New Life is forgetting those things in the past that can weigh us down and then reaching forward to those things in the future that lead us to our Savior and eventually to our new home in heaven.
As we consider the things we need to start anew and improve, let us give greater consideration to our spiritual life.
Do you need to start anew by obeying Christ in baptism (Romans 6:3-6)?
Do you need to renew your commitment to Christ in serving Him and others?
Do you need to renew your hope of the life that lasts forever?
Do you need to renew your trust in God’s promises to always be there for you, regardless of the circumstances?
We can truly have a Happy New Year, by putting our faith in Christ, the only one that offers us NEW LIFE.
Happy New Year