“NEW”! The emotional response from this word is immediate, intense. A new car, with that unique, untouched smell, the empty odometer, and the pristine upholstery is a special treat to be savored. New clothes and new gifts at Christmas or birthdays are always exciting. New jobs or relationships mix anticipation with fearful trepidation of the unknown. But, each NEW that we experience, comes clean, unused, and filled with potential.
So, also, with the idea of a New Year comes an excitement for a new chance, a clean slate. No matter what hardships and disappointments, sicknesses or losses, evils and devastations even, filled our past year, the New Year gives a new place to start, one more chance, another hope.
While considering the emotions and expectations that accompany the dawning of a new year, I am captivated by the word “new”. For, in “NEW” I see GOD.
God is Eternally “NEW”
In this time-bound world, every new thing that we obtain is only new for the briefest of moments. That new car loses value as soon as it is driven home from the car lot. Within a year, it has accumulated miles, scratches. The new car smell has been replaced by other, often not-so-pleasant smells. A newborn baby begins to age from the moment of birth. In what seems like a couple blinks of your eyes, a few whispered breezes, those tiny beings have become adults headed into their own old age. “New” cannot be kept or preserved. As soon as the new is experienced, it passes into “was” and “old”.
Yet, God is forever “New”! The Eternal God never ages, never fails, never changes. The passing moments that accumulate to millenia do not make God older, for there is no limit to his existence. In the Scriptures, when God found it necessary to introduce Himself, He simply identified with the tautology: “I am that I am”. He is. Always… forever… He is. The one who “was, is, and is to come” exists eternally the same, in all these tenses. Because time cannot taint eternity, the “Ancient of Days” equals the “I AM”.
God Makes All Things New
In the Bible, we see many promises of things that God makes “new” including:
1. Mercy: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; They are new every morning; great is your faithulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
2. Heart: And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put with you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
3. Covenant: Therefore his is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called my receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems the from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Hebrews 9:15
4. Birth: According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I Peter 1:3
5. Self: … put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24
6. Life: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4
7. Creation: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
If you are ready for a new start this year, remember all of the ways that God has made each believer “new” in Christ. And, this spiritual “newness” is renewed every day. (2 Cor. 4:16 — So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.)
Remember, we serve a “new” God who never “wastes away”. In Christ, each day we can start with a clean slate.
Revelation 21:5 “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Happy New Year!!!
(See also Every Day is New– Start Over! from last January)
With Joy,
Kathleen
All verses are from the ESV.