A New Leaf or a New Life?

It is hard to believe that we are in a new year, isn't it? Time passes so quickly any more. But it is true; we are in 1999.

Many of you have probably made some New Year's resolutions. Some of you may have even broken a few of them already. All of the good intentions and strong determination have failed to make the resolve a reality.

But why did you sense a need for a resolution to improve? Were there things about your life that were less than proper, less than exemplary, less than advantageous? Are the problems trouble- some enough that resolution may not do the job you intended? Is the need for change a bigger job than you can handle yourself? Let's think about this a while.

If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, God says that you are ". . .dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). I know of no deceased human being who has ever come back to life by resolving to do so. The physical problem is greater than that. The spiritual problem of the sinner is no less grave.

It is not resolution that the average person needs, but regeneration, that is, being made alive again from an outside source. The verse partially quoted above gives the identity of that source. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Paul told his Ephesian friends who had trusted Christ as Savior that God had quickened them. God had made them alive again.

Jesus told a religious leader in John 3:7, ". . . .Ye must be born again." He cited the need for new life from above, from God alone. That life comes by faith in Jesus Christ; not by resolution. And it is absolutely necessary for making a man good enough for the presence of God, for Jesus said in John 3:3, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

So it is not necessarily wrong to try to improve one's moral conduct; it is just fruitless. Only God can change the character. He does it by making the person a "new creature" in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17). Therein lies your hope for living a better life.