All new

Think a minute…This is a true story about a boy named Philip. Philip was nine- years-old in a class of eight-year-olds. The kids in his class were not kind to Philip. They would not talk to him or let him play with them. Philip suffered from a disease called Down Syndrome, so his face looked a little different and his thinking and speaking were slower than the other children’s. 

During the week of Easter the teacher gave each child a plastic egg that they could open. Then she sent them outside to find a symbol of new life, such as a seed or leaf, to put inside the plastic egg. Later all the children gathered around their basket of eggs and watched as the teacher began to open them. 

One child had put a flower inside her egg. All the children thought it was a great symbol of new life. In another egg was a butterfly that all the girls said was beautiful. 

Finally, the teacher opened the last plastic egg and there was nothing inside it. One child said, “That’s dumb!” Another kid said, “That’s not fair!” Then the teacher felt someone pulling her hand. It was Philip. He looked up at her and said:  “It’s my egg. I left it empty because Jesus’ grave is empty.

That’s why I have a new life.”  The whole class was silent. From that day on, Philip was accepted as part of the class. Whatever had made him different was not important or ever mentioned again.

Only a few months later, Philip died from an infection. On the day of Philip’s funeral, his whole class of eight-year-old boys and girls came to say goodbye to their special friend. Each child walked up to Philip’s casket to place beside it their gift: an empty egg.

If God the Son can make His love so real and clearly understood to a child like Philip, then none of us has an excuse for not understanding how much Jesus loves us. God humiliated Himself by becoming a human being, not only to die for all our wrongs and forgive us, but to come back to life to show us that He is God Himself who wants to give us an “all new” life.

He did not give His own sinless life and rise again only to give us a “new and improved” life. He sacrificed Himself to give us the completely changed life for which He created us. 

This is why Jesus declared that we must be “born again.” Only after we start life all over again, giving our Maker His rightful place as our one and only Lord in charge of the life He gave us, can we start learning to live His way. It’s the only way He made our life to work correctly to bring us full satisfaction and lasting peace.  

Like an empty egg, we must empty our heart of our own self-centered, rebellious life so our Creator can fill it with His life. He must start living inside and ruling our heart with His pure love and truth. The Christian philosopher and apologist, Ravi Zacharias, says it well: 

“God the Son did not come only to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.” Jesus said that all we human beings have rebelled against Him our Creator, so we are dead spiritually—completely separated from God’s life that is perfectly pure, full and free. 

This is why only God Himself could save us by freely giving His own perfect righteousness to us, after He died to pay the debt and penalty for all our wrongs: our wrong thoughts, wrong attitudes, wrong words, wrong habits and behaviors, wrong relationships, and most of all, our wrong heart—which is the source of all our wrong living. 

It’s so true: “If your religion has not changed you, then you need to change your religion.” But remember, Christianity is not a religion. It is a daily, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ who is God Himself. As your Creator, He loves you so much that He became a human being to sacrifice Himself for all your sins, so you could finally “come home” to Him. Then God the Son walked out of the empty tomb so He could walk in to your empty heart and live inside you forever. 

As both your Creator and Savior, He is the only One Who can perfectly fit and fill every emptiness, need and desire you will ever have. So if you repent and “die” to your wrong way of living, He can change you with His real resurrection life and power to become all He created you to be in His likeness.

Today He can start making your life ALL NEW. Why not ask Him? Just think a minute…

Samoa Observer

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