If we are new people in Christ how can we degrade those who are not yet new creatures, and may never be because you slipped back into your old human nature.
~ Lisa Blair
“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! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.16-20.NLT)
We are God’s ambassadors. We were given this role when we became reconciled to Christ. We became new people, and our old human nature was washed away. So you say, how can my old man be relinquished and replaced. The moment you received Christ as your Lord and Savior you were washed clean and freed from sin, and you received freedom in Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he wrote, ”so Christ has truly set us free. (Galatians 5:1)
To explain to the title, we have an old nature and a new nature. We possess both because we are human. The beauty is, when we became new people in Christ, we could push down the old creature. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13-14,
“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.””
(Galatians 5:13-14 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.13-14.NLT)
We no longer find it necessary to satisfy what our old nature craves. Again, Paul warns that our sinful nature wants to do evil. This part of us finds it easy to criticize others, to evaluate others, to belittle others. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are no longer obliged to succumb to the whims of your sin nature. We possess new qualities, replacement qualities.
Galatians 5:22-26 first tells us what new qualities we possess. Paul informs us that our evil, sinful nature was nailed to the cross and crucified with Christ. He further wrote to the Galatians and us, stating that
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”
(Galatians 5:22, 24-26 NLT. https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.22-26.NLT)
We are in a cultural melee that has pitted people against each other. Communities neighborhoods, states, regions, and nations are in a state of upheaval. People are acting out of their human, carnal, sin nature. We are evaluating and judging people rather that loving and respecting people. We focus on the human point of view that cares little about compassion, joy, love patience, peace, kindness, self-control, goodness, gentleness, or faithfulness. We are at a crossroads. Do we break away from our sin nature and follow Christ, or do we drown in the muck and mire of this earth? It is time that we open our eyes, recognize that we are not acting as if we were reconcile to Christ and chose a different path. It is time to stop evaluating people from a human point of view and begin loving our neighbor whoever they may be.
Lisa’s Daily Inspirations 