New Every Morning

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

I wonder how many preachers can remember the text of their first sermon. Well in my case, not so much a full blown theological treaties but a sermonette I ‘preached’ as part of a service when the youth of the church took the lead.  I must have been about 12 or 13 and with the help of my Dad drafted some words on 2 Corinthians 5:17. It didn’t last long and for the life of me I can’t remember what I said all I know is that the words of that text has resonated with me over the last 60 years. Of course, in those days my text was taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Today we use the word, “anyone.”

When we meet some people we know immediately and instinctively that they are different. We are anxious to learn their secret. It is not the way they dress or talk or behave, although it influences these things. It is not that they have affixed a name tag to themselves and proclaimed themselves the adherent of a particular religion or ideology. It’s not even that they have a strict moral code which they faithfully follow. It is that they know Jesus Christ, and that he is a living reality to them. They dwell in him and he dwells in them. He is the source of their life and it shows in everything they do.

Not merely in the words you say,
Not only in your deeds confessed,
But in the most unconscious way

Is Christ expressed.
Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?
Oh no! I felt his presence
When you laughed just now.

To me, ’twas not the truth you taught,
To you so clear, to me still dim,
But when you came you brought
A sense of him.

And from your eyes he beckons me
And from your heart his love is shed,
Till I lose sight of you and see
The Christ instead.

Fred Beuchner puts it this way, to believe in Christ is to give your heart to Christ, which means not to affirm things about Christ, but it’s like what you mean when you say, “I believe in my friend.”