Nothing Like A Fresh Start At Life

Nothing Like A Fresh Start At Life                          December 26, 2021

“Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (II Corinthians 5:17-19)

We live only once in this world and how we live our life determines whether we have any regrets in it or not.  I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have some regrettable memory from their past, have you? 

Yet, because of Christ, our regrettable past can have a new beginning, a fresh start.  In the scripture above, God wants every sinner to have a new beginning.  In Christ, one’s past has truly passed away, new things (a new life) have come. 

God so loved the world (with all their regrets, mistakes, sins, etc.) that He sent His only begotten Son into the world that whoever believeth in Him may have eternal life (John 3:16).  Jesus is the only means whereby God is able to bring back to Himself all those who have sinned against Him (back to a right relationship, an acceptable relationship with Him).  This is what spiritual reconciliation means: to bring one back to a rightful relationship with God.

When I read the Bible there are numerous accounts of people who sinned before God and regretted what they did.  Their sins had separated them from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).  So, to be right again with Him, they needed to be reconciled and Jesus is God’s only choice (means) for that to happen. 

Do you have a past that continually haunts you and makes your present day miserable?  Past sins have a way of gnawing away at one’s conscience and causing them such misery. David talks about this very thing when he kept silent before God and others about his sin in Psalms 32:3-4 which states, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night, Your hand, O God, was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”  So what choice did David make concerning his past sins?  “I acknowledged my sin to God, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgression to the Lord’; and He did forgive the guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).

Do you want a new start at life; another shot at living with a conscience free from the burden of guilt?  Only Jesus can provide that for you but along with that comes the responsibility of living a new life; a life fashioned after the likeness of Christ; a life that says, “No!” to sin when it knocks at your door (Titus 2:11-14).

There is much to say about what’s involved in being reconciled to God so if you want to know more about such then please email me at: oscofc50@gmail.com for more details.

Brian Thompson