Steven A. Bush - January 9, 2022
From Fallen Humans to New Creations
2 Corinthians 5:13-17 says: "If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (NLT) There's a great danger with respect to this Good News and that's thinking we deserve it but others don't. But the truth is, none of us deserve it! At some point the first line of John Newton's hymn is true for us all: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a WRETCH like me." Jesus has been saving wretches for 2000 years and counting, turning fallen humans into new creations. May we never stand in the way of His work! May we be stepping stones and never stumbling blocks, gateways and never hedgerows, bridges but never barriers...