Dear Friends

 

2014 is upon us – where did 2013 go??  Out with the old and in with the new.  Over the last two  Sundays we spent some time focussing on that very subject, as Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus urges us to “put off your old self” and to “put on the new self”. The old self is associated with our life before we placed our faith in Christ, whereas the new self is very different.  It is made to measure for those who are “in Christ”.  This putting off of the old self, however, and putting on the new self, is not a command from Paul for us to try harder to be good Christians.  It is so easy for us to look at Christ and see the perfect example of his life, then to try our best to imitate that life and to find, time and time again, that we fall short.  It is so easy for the Christian life to become a religious set of rules for us to live up to, which we always seem to fall short on.

 

I do not believe this is what Paul is urging us towards.  Instead, as the earlier part of Ephesians shows, he is praying that we would grasp who we are “in Christ” and that we would simply take what is already ours, the freedom from sin that Christ purchased for us on the cross.  The transformation in our lives here and now starts with a change in thinking, a completely different mindset, that sets us free from religious legalism, and turns us instead to see the freedom that is ours through the incredible grace of our God.

 

My prayer, as we start this new year, is that we would come to God with a fresh desire to live up to the calling that we have already received in Christ, and that we would do that through a transformed thinking and understanding of who we are.  At the end of last week’s message we had the opportunity to speak out a response; a declaration of who we are in Christ and of our desire to live for him.  I would like to end this letter with that response so that we could continue to reflect on these words and to meditate on the truth of the gospel and the calling that is ours in Christ:

 

> I am chosen by God and adopted to “sonship” in his family

> My sins are forgiven, my life redeemed through the blood of Christ

> My destiny is sealed by God’s Holy Spirit

> I am saved by God’s grace and not by my own efforts

> I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God has already prepared for me

> The same power is within me that raised Christ from the dead.

> At the start of 2014 I choose to put off the old self

> I choose to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness

> I choose to live a life worthy of the calling I have received in Christ 

 

I believe that if we can grasp these truths and begin to live them out it will transform our own lives, the lives of those of those around us, our church and our community.  

 

Happy New Year!

 

Love and Blessing

 

Jon