Key Verse: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! – 2 Corinthians 5:17

A friend of mine once bought a house that overlooked the canal. It was going to be his dream home, but unfortunately, due to his job in the city, he never found the time to fix it up and eventually became fed up of the long commute into the office each day. Finally, he decided to move back into the city and hired someone to repair and modernize the house to maximize the sale price. He installed a brand new kitchen and bathroom, and he landscaped the garden. Everything in the house looked beautiful and he sold the house making a little profit, but two months after the new owners bought his house, they knocked it to the ground and built an eco-friendly house where it once stood.

Often our endeavours to improve our own lives are as worthless as my friend’s home improvements on a house that was awaiting demolition. When we come to God, the old life is over and He makes all things new. We are no longer chained to the old life; we have been made new in Christ Jesus. The old life has passed away, and the new has come.

The transformation promised by God is not one in which our sins and past mistakes get hidden or glossed over. In the life of a sinner saved by grace, every part of our lives are made new. Satan will often try to convince us that we are no different than we were before we came to Christ. But Scripture is clear, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. We do not need to put on a show to try and convince people we are saved, because at our very core, we are not the same as we were.

When God’s power and grace touch a human heart, a spectacular change happens. You are no more bound to the old life, you have been made new in Christ Jesus.