‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.’ 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

What would you like to change about yourself? How would you change it? To ask it another way, what would your spouse or your best friend like you to change? Maybe that would be more enlightening. How would you end the sentence, ‘It’s just like me to…’? Always be late? Not stay on a diet? Say the wrong thing? Burst out in anger? Be sad?

Jeremiah puts it this way: ‘Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil.’ (Jeremiah 13:23 NLT)

You say, ‘I guess it’s hopeless.’ No, this is where God’s life-changing power comes into operation: ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV) Once we commit our lives to Christ, we’re not the same any longer; a new life has begun. That’s why the Bible calls it being ‘born again’. We immediately have a new nature, plus the indwelling Holy Spirit. A set of ‘spiritual batteries’ is included to supply the power! That makes all the difference.

Just as your first birth was the beginning of your life, so the new birth is the beginning of this new life. And it’s followed by a lifelong process depicted in Romans 12:2 NASB: ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’

SoulFood: Dan 11–12, Mt 8:28–34, Ps 89:38–52, Prov 3:1–2

The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright © 2025