Making All Things New: From Death To Life
There is something profoundly different about buying a new car or buying a used car. When you buy a used car, normally the person selling it does everything in their power to make it appear to be as new. The inside is not only cleaned out, it is polished and detailed in every crevasse and nook. Air fresheners are added in hops of giving it that “new car smell” and mask any additional scents picked up along the way. Yet, for all of the effort, a used car can never be truly new again. You can replace parts, clean the inside, and fix problems, but when it comes down to it, the car is still a used car. There will still be flaws that affect performance, small imperfections in the car and everything will be just shy of new.
Our spiritual lives are incredibly similar. We may do many things to make ourselves as clean. We may cut out sin, exercise more, try to strive for perfection, but ultimately, apart from Christ, we will fail. However clean and polished we may look, we will be used and aged. This make the works of Jesus Christ that much more impressive. In John’s Revelation, he was given a glimpse into the final days and the end times. During this, he had the privilege of understanding what God sought after in the salvation of His people.
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Towards the end of John’s Revelation he understood God’s desire for the salvation of His people. God was making all things new. The plan wasn’t to attempt to tidy of or to make a used car to be like new, but to reform and remake a person new. There is a difference between new and like new and God would be making all things new. God, on His sovereign throne, would command existence itself to be restored to fullness by His powerful might and His wondrous grace. Though sin had been introduced to the world and through it death, God removes the decay for the restoration of mankind.
The Introduction of Sin
Apart from Christ, you are dead. Plain and simple. There is no getting round this fact. With the introduction of sin into the system, the world cracked under the weight of imperfection. From its inception, the world was intended to reflect the glory of the Lord as an extension of His creation. The hand of God created the world and spoke of the marvelous nature of the Lord. Yet, the introduction of sin brought with it a crack in creation. Suddenly, the perfect system that God had created was exposed to imperfection and unholiness. While it was intended to be in a perpetual state of newness, instead it had become a grimy used mess, unfit for the presence of God.
Sin corrupted a perfect system and decaying spread to the whole of creation and to the innermost parts of our soul. The only solution would be our restoration. Share on XLikewise, on a personal level, sin was introduced to our selves and the consequences were devastating. “‘Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.’ (Romans 5:12, NIV) The effects of sin were a condemnation of death. In our sin, death already reigned supreme. We were dead but merely passing the time until we arrived at that conclusion. Sin corrupted a perfect system and decaying spread to the whole of creation and to the innermost parts of our soul. The only solution would be our restoration.
A Full Restoration
The work of Jesus Christ was not to act as a cloth to wipe down a dirty surface. The goal was to take something from used to new. Where death had it’s reign through sin, having been introduced by Adam, life would have its reign through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The simple answer for God would have been to pour out His wrath on a sinful people. Yet, to do so, would be the destruction of His beloved creation made in His image. Instead, God sought to restore the relationship. The work of Christ made the path to a restored relationship between God and man, despite our many sins and short comings. We may be a sinful people, but we are a loved people whose God pursues us regardless of our actions and our rebellion against the created order. After all, we were intended to be in full relationships with God and it is precisely this relationship that God would be making new.
You may feel old, dirty, unclean, and out of touch with your faith, but remember the words of God seated on the throne; I am making all things new. Share on XYou may feel old, dirty, unclean, and out of touch with your faith, but remember the words of God seated on the throne, “I am making all things new.” No more will you be weighed down by the burden of sin and its effects because Jesus Christ has paved a way for your salvation and your restoration. That issue of unholiness that you once struggled to come out from under can be laid bare at the feet of Jesus. Allow God to make you new and give Him full access to the deepest parts of your soul. He is a God who does not seek your death but seeks your restoration. Where the relationship with God was once separated by an unsurmountable chasm, Jesus Christ made a way for us to return home and to be made new once again.
