What's Wrong With The Old You?

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So, the New Year is like a week old already and yet people are still hanging on to that “New Year, New You” bandwagon.  You dedicated last year to getting fit, staying active, and eating healthier. You wrote inspirational quotes on notecards and taped them all around your house. You ‘unfriended’ those people that sucked the life and happiness out of your life. You tried really hard to be a nicer person and to control that one area that always seems to trip you up. Overall, last year’s resolutions turned out great. Why, then, does everyone keep pushing all that stuff down your throat? Since you did so well last year, can’t you just “Keep-on Keepin-on” with the old you? 

Being that it is a new year, I really want to jump back and just cover the basics for a bit. While you’re getting to know me through these posts, I still don’t know anything about you. To the coding of this site, you’re just another number; just another notification that someone viewed my blog. However, to me and, most importantly, to The Lord, know that you are worth so much more; because He’s told us so. That’s why I want to take this- my first post of the new year- as an opportunity to share with you the gospel that I talk so much about throughout my posts. Even if you already know what I’m about to say, I ask that you stick it out and bear with me here. It couldn’t hurt, right?

I’m gonna keep this simple. There’s no reason for fluff and niceties between friends, right?

The fact of the matter is that the whole Gospel can be summed up in this: Christ stripped each of us of our sins and wore them himself. He bore the death penalty; once and for all. Through His resurrection, He defeated the enemy- Satan- and bridged the gap between us and God. [1 Peter 2:24]

You See…

 God created people to glorify Him.

He created us to have a personal relationship with Him.

He didn’t, however, want a bunch of mindless robots. So He gave us free choice.

He gave us the ability to make our own decisions; namely, the ability to choose whether to accept Him or reject Him.

With that free choice, people chose sin.  [Romans 3:23]

The only penalty for sin is death. [Romans 3:23]
        This fact isn’t cruel or heartless. This fact doesn’t change just how much God loves us.

What this fact does do, though, is it proves just how holy God is.

He is so holy that even the tiniest bit of anger or the first unkind thought is more than enough to create a massive chasm between God and us.

Thanks to Adam (The first man created and the first man to sin), each of us are born into sin. [1 Corinthians 15:22]

We don’t actually have to do anything wrong to be a sinner. That first sin cursed every person ever conceived by man.

We, as sinners, are each sentenced to death; Death via eternal separation from God in hell. [Luke 13:5]

How can a loving God send people to hell? He doesn’t.

People choose it.

How do people choose hell?

They reject Christ crucified. 

     They refuse the fact that Christ died in their place. They reject His free gift of salvation. They make a physical choice to continue in their sin forever. [John 3:36]

Every person is faced with this same choice at some point in their lives.

Your time is now. 

     You’ve heard the gospel. I just told it to you. You have no excuse anymore. This may be your first chance; it may be your last chance.

If you choose right now to reject Christ, then nothing more I say can help you. You’ve doomed yourself.

BUT

If you choose right now to accept Christ’s free gift of salvation, keep reading.

It’s at this point where many would lead you through the “sinner’s prayer” (or something of the sort). I’m not going to do that. The Bible never tells us a list of magic words to say that earn us salvation. It does, however, tell us this:

“He (an unsaved sinner just like you and I all once were) then asked, “What must I do to be saved?” The reply was: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you WILL BE SAVED.” (Acts 16:31)

Also This:

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus IS Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you WILL BE SAVED. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified (pronounced innocent of sin), and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)

Easy as that. You just agree with God that you are, inherently and willingly, a sinner (you both were born with the nature and have chosen to sin on your own), and ask Him to forgive you of that- accepting Christ’s gift of salvation.  It’s at this point that He will fill you with the Holy Spirit and transform you into a new creation. [2 Corinthians 5:17]

So what’s wrong with the old you?

That’s just it; it’s old; and I’m not talking about your diet, lifestyle, fitness program or beauty processes. In comparison with whether you are saved or not, all of that stuff is just worthless nonsense. Don’t allow yourself to feel comfortable in the old. 

As believers, there’s always room for reevaluation, so we should never be content in the same-old-same.

If you aren’t a believer at all, then you’re a lost soul. You need to seriously take into consideration what I’ve just said; not because I said anything special, but because your eternity with or without God hangs in the balance. I’ll be praying for you.

If you just accepted that free gift of salvation, all of heaven rejoices with you as a new creation in Christ; a new You! Congratulations, my friend! Even if we never meet here on this earth, I can’t wait to meet you in heaven.

Well. Don’t stop now! Go on and work towards an even better version of that NEW YOU! Read God’s Word. Spend time with Him in prayer. Seek out other believers to fellowship with and learn from. Oh, and read some of my other posts! :) Let me know what ya think!