New Creation

Day 5

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

              I visited a local fast-food drive through and ordered my supper. The guy at the register looked so familiar. I handed him the money and while he counted out the change, I tried to catch a glimpse of his name tag. He faced me and my suspicions were confirmed. This was Travis from my third-year teaching.

              Once he realized who I was his face lit up. We chatted about high school and where he planned to go for college. He seemed so grown up compared to the anxious little boy who had regular meltdowns in my classroom all those years ago. He wasn’t the same. All things were new now. Seeing this grown-up young man made my heart swell.

              Travis came to me broken. His teachers from the previous year pushed him to the breaking point. He was too afraid to try anything new because he might fail. Failure was not an option. He had been punished for it. He had to be perfect.

Some days I could motivate him to pick up a pencil and try. But other days, he’d stare at his blank page terrified to write anything down on his paper. He’d start shaking, rocking, then tears erupted violently from his face. Angry  outbursts followed which involved banging on the desk, breaking pencils, or laying in the hallway between classrooms continuously kicking the door.

When he finally verbalized his fears and told me what his former teachers would do and say to him when he messed up, my heart broke for him. He had been verbally and emotionally abused for a whole year and now he struggled to perform in a safe environment. We talked often and practiced refocus strategies. I gave him opportunities to fail with zero consequences. No one had ever shown him he was not his mistakes.

By the end of that school year, Travis no longer had meltdowns. He confidently completed math assignments and his grades drastically improved. Seeing him as a functional almost adult in that drive through line made me smile. He was living his life and had goals in place. The job would help him achieve his dreams. He was not his mistakes, but instead a new creation, ready to tackle the world ahead of him.

Like Travis, we often confuse the mistakes we make with the person we are. We think we’ve gone too far to be loved, accepted, or forgiven. But just like Travis learned to separate the two, we also must separate our mistakes from who we are. When we come to Christ and accept his free gift of salvation, we throw off the old and put on the new. We are a brand-new creation.

Our sin does not define us. It is not our identity. Psalm 103:12 (NIV) says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” God doesn’t look at us and see our failures. He looks at us and sees his beloved children.

              Do you have the freedom to fail? Do the students in your class have that freedom too? Do you live like you are a new creation or do you let the regrets, sin, and shame from the past weigh you down? How can you model for your students what it’s like to be a new creation in Christ?

Do the Heart Work

1.      What sins and mistakes tend to sneak in and claim pieces of your identity? Do you struggle to forgive yourself?

2.      Has someone ever treated you like Travis was treated? What happens to us when we are mistreated by people who are in authority?

3.      Which of your students need to know they have the freedom of a fresh start?

Digging Deeper            

Read these verses and think about what it means to be a new creation in Christ.

1.      “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV)

2.      To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24 (ESV)

3.      The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:22-24 (ESV)

4.      Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 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. 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

5.      Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)

One of my favorite sayings is, “Let God redeem what the enemy tried to ruin you with.” Sin doesn’t have to define us anymore once we surrender to Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are a new creation. No longer old and stinky. We are forgiven and clean. That is a part of our identity in Christ.

If You Get Spare Time 

              Spend some time in your journal or in prayer talking to God about these questions. Have you ever committed a sin that you thought had disqualified you? Are there things in your past that seem unforgivable? Do you struggle to understand how God forgives you when you can’t forgive yourself?

              As you pray for yourself, pray for the children in your class and coworkers on your hall. Have you shared the new life in Christ with them?