A New You
AUTHOR: Aaron Williams
Something I have always found interesting about our culture is this fixation on ‘new year new me’. We all have this desire, whether conscious or unconscious, to change. We recognize that there are things about ourselves that must change. Whether that’s a commitment to join a gym, to kick a habit, or something else. But how many times have people failed their new year resolutions? How many times have you?
This desire for change, along with the seeming inability to do so, has always interested me. Because if you think about it, it’s a very real, very immediate picture of the Gospel. Here we have people, who have recognized that there is something about themselves that must change, and yet they lack the ability to make that change. Or they cannot make it permanent. The change is always fleeting.
I think the reason this change always fails is that we can’t change ourselves. A leopard cannot change its spots, a house cannot paint itself. We require something outside of ourselves to change. Something must happen to us for us to make lasting change. In our culture's fixation with ‘new year new me,’ I find it odd that we have missed the Gospel. Because that is something promised by the Gospel. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation…” The Gospel, Christ, knows our desire to change, and doesn’t look down on it, rather He says that we go about it wrong, that we don’t change ourselves. He changes us.
All this leads me to ask us a simple question: If you desire to change, how are you going about it? Are you spending time with Christ, the one you desire to be like? After all, we become like that which we behold.
Something I have always found interesting about our culture is this fixation on ‘new year new me’. We all have this desire, whether conscious or unconscious, to change. We recognize that there are things about ourselves that must change. Whether that’s a commitment to join a gym, to kick a habit, or something else. But how many times have people failed their new year resolutions? How many times have you?
This desire for change, along with the seeming inability to do so, has always interested me. Because if you think about it, it’s a very real, very immediate picture of the Gospel. Here we have people, who have recognized that there is something about themselves that must change, and yet they lack the ability to make that change. Or they cannot make it permanent. The change is always fleeting.
I think the reason this change always fails is that we can’t change ourselves. A leopard cannot change its spots, a house cannot paint itself. We require something outside of ourselves to change. Something must happen to us for us to make lasting change. In our culture's fixation with ‘new year new me,’ I find it odd that we have missed the Gospel. Because that is something promised by the Gospel. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation…” The Gospel, Christ, knows our desire to change, and doesn’t look down on it, rather He says that we go about it wrong, that we don’t change ourselves. He changes us.
All this leads me to ask us a simple question: If you desire to change, how are you going about it? Are you spending time with Christ, the one you desire to be like? After all, we become like that which we behold.
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1 Comment
Thank you for the reminder. It reminds me of the Scripture in Romans 12:1 that says: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." I always need to spend time with Him and in His Word so that my mind may be renewed. I cannot do it myself!