TEACHINGS

A New Year, a New Beginning

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,
the old has gone, and the new has come.
– 2 Corinthians 5:17

It is a New Year and a new beginning and you need to choose today to live the life God wants you to and be where He wants you to be. It is a choice that you, and no one else, have to make.
Sometimes we live our lives based on the past and focus on what we could have done or should have done. When we do that, we lose perspective of the present and the future. There is very little you can do about the past year other than to learn from the mistakes you might have made.

Yes, there are areas where you might have missed God last year. The enemy could be reminding you of the sins you committed during the previous year. Rejoice on this first day of the New Year because those sins were forgiven when you confessed them. God does not remember them anymore. You have been redeemed as He promised and you need to see yourself that way – the redeemed of the Lord.

This is a new day that the Lord has made and in you He has created a new person. You need to stand up and get excited about the New Year and the tasks that lie ahead. There are new projects to be executed, new mountain peaks to be reached, new goals to be achieved and new dimensions to be discovered in your walk with God.
God’s timing is always perfect. He knows why you made it into this New Year. You are not here merely to take up space while drifting along in life. God has kept, and indeed, redeemed you for a purpose. That which God begins, He always completes, and He wants to do exactly that in your life – whether it is personal, financial, emotional or physical. You can enable Him to do that by leaving behind your past and embracing the newness of life He has given you. Get up and do what needs to be done.

Choose to be Redeemed

Jesus Christ is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all.
In the Gospels He walks in human form upon the earth,
and accomplishes the work of redemption.
– Philip Schaff

Choose to Be Strengthened
Strength – … that quality which tends to secure results;
effective power in an institution or enactment; security;
validity; legal or moral force; logical conclusiveness.

Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever,
those who are being made holy.
– Hebrews 10:14

By giving his life for us, Jesus has made us whole. He became our Substitute and took our punishment. Salvation is a legal matter and, lawfully, no punishment can be meted on us because Jesus has already served the sentence for us. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, the Bible says Jesus (He who knew no sin) was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We have been made perfect, not temporarily but for ever.

When man sinned, Jesus offered to take our penalty and die in our place. Revelation 13:8 says that He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. His mission in relation to us was well captured by John the Baptist when, upon seeing Jesus, he said: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). How profound that the sinless One was willing to become a sacrifice for a sinful race.

No angel could die in our place. Only Jesus and his sinless nature could match the law of God. He had the nature and the character that could ransom for our fallen race. The sacrifice was offered and when we accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour, his blood is applied on the doorposts of our personal lives and we get exempted from the wages of sin, which is death.
We need to recognize the value of our worth in the eyes of Him who redeemed us and handpicked us for his Kingdom.

Jesus knew the pain which lay before Him when He would be crucified. Yet He did not turn back. Instead, He chose to follow through because God’s love for us is greater than anything we can ever imagine. We are special creatures in his eyes. We were worth the life and sacrifice of his only Son. So how can we not choose today to be revitalized in the Word, in his glory, and in our lives? Choose to recognize and accept the sacrifice He was for you.

You’ve Been Redeemed by the Blood In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness for our sins, in accordance with the riches of God.
– Ephesians 1:7

Sometimes we become victims of our fear. We think of what could happen, instead of what we can make happen, and it stops us from doing the things we should. We allow ourselves to hold on to our past mistakes, regrets and failures.
But Jesus has redeemed us from our past sins and He has picked us up from the deep pits we were in and given us new life in Him. The surety of our redemption lies in Him through his blood. Isn’t that wonderful? That is what the above verse says. Jesus has, through his blood, not only redeemed us but provided collateral (security) for the same redemption. Nobody (Satan and his demons included) can challenge our redemption. There is no better indemnity or guarantee beyond the blood of Jesus.

In the Old Testament, the word redemption generally means a ‘ransom price’ and in the New Testament it means the ‘great price’ which Jesus, the Redeemer, paid for our liberation from sin. Whichever way one looks at it, the concept denotes buying or purchasing. When man fell in the Garden of Eden, that produced humanity’s servitude under Satan. The Redeemer, Jesus Christ, has ‘purchased’ you from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. And this has been done according to his riches – riches not defined by the streets of gold in heaven but the ones found in the blood of Jesus. No wonder it is called the ‘precious’ blood of the Lamb.
Be careful how you value yourself and how you allow other people to value you. The accuser of the brethren (Satan) and others might have told you that you are worthless and will never amount to anything. God thought you were worth the blood of his Son. Therefore, walk, talk and act like one who is worth the blood. Recognize God’s redemption and go into the New Year excited about what He did for you at the cross. Yes, you can say today, like that most prolific hymnist in all of history, Fanny Crosby, once wrote: Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!

Justified Freely by Grace

Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness.
– Romans 3:24–25

Paul here speaks about us being justified freely by God’s grace. But what does justification mean? When Adam and Eve committed sin in the Garden of Eden, we inherited that original sin which in turn destroyed the righteousness man originally had.

But because of the love and mercy of God, Jesus Christ willingly paid for our sins through his crucifixion and resurrection, thus meriting the redemption of humanity. Whoever believes in and confesses the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus can have their sins forgiven and become children of God. From this perspective, justification means being transformed from a state of unrighteousness to divine sonship through Jesus Christ.

The justification takes place through grace. But what is grace? Grace is the free and undeserved favour that God gives us to respond to his call. Man cannot be justified or acceptable in God’s sight except through his grace. However much people may believe that a good man can earn favour and acceptance with God, humanity cannot of itself meet God’s standard of righteousness. Whatever we do, we cannot win God’s favour except through Christ.

Through our redemption, God has made us righteous. God promised to bless us, provide for us, give us peace and protect us. He has a plan and purpose for each of our lives. As his children, He wants only the best for us. He promised to complete the good work that He has started in us. But unless we choose to allow Him to complete the good work in our lives, we will not experience the joy of his power and love. He wants us to rise to every challenge and grab hold of every opportunity that He presents us. He wants us to shine in his Name. Jesus has taken care of the worst part when He was nailed to the cross. All we need to do is be faithful to God and his purpose in us. Choose today to embrace his grace and the free justification He has given you.

This is an extract from Choose This Day by Ray McCauley. For more information, please click here