Over 50 Young Adults Praying for Santiago Amin at Tuesday Nights as he prepares to leave for Calvary Chapel Cartagena in Colombia in just a few weeks. 

2 Corinthians 5: 16-21 NIV Part 3

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

So we regard everyone with an eternal perspective, and in Christ We are a new creation leaving the old behind and becoming new; now what?
Well, verse 18 tells us that that all this is part of God’s master plan to reconcile His people to Himself and He does it by paying the price of our sins with the sacrifice of His blameless son in the cross and then committing ALL of us to the message of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5: 16-21 NIV Part 2

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

One of the most empowering verses in scripture is found on 2 Corinthians 5:17 where we are reminded that regardless of how bad our past is we are nothing short than a new creation; not a better and improved one but a “Brand new” creation. How amazing is that? How powerful is that statement? 
The simple yet powerful opportunity of another shot at life but this time with the standard of our Lord Jesus Christ as the example to follow; that should give hope to everyone of us for no matter how hard we try or how much we think we got it, we remain empty and vain until we allow the redemptive power of God to make us new. “The old has gone, the new is here!” our old life on the flesh is gone and a new life in Christ is now here. 

I would like to encourage us all to embrace this truth today, and become All that God created us to be by leaving the “old me” in the past and allowing the “new me” we have in Christ to be at work in our lives, so that we can see what God has for us in verse 18.

Blessings

PART 1 | 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21 NIV

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Today we start to go over this beautiful and hope loaded section of scripture by highlighting verse 16 where the apostle Paul call us to “from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view”; so can we really do that? Can we look at the mean teller at the bank and see in him or her a child of God? Can we think of a criminal in today’s news as our brother or sister in Christ?