{"id":6746,"date":"2025-04-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6746"},"modified":"2025-03-21T16:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T21:08:14","slug":"new-not-just-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6746","title":{"rendered":"New, Not Just Better"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Short and sweet thought for the week\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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When Christ comes into our lives, He makes us a new creation. We aren\u2019t like old cars with a new coat of paint making us look more presentable. The car might look better, but the motor would still be the same. Coming to Christ means exchanging or surrendering our old self to God so He can give us a completely new model!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a concept the Pharisees never understood. They were intent on preserving and protecting their old way of doing things. They thought salvation was all about their archaic rules and regulations. So, Jesus gave them the analogy of why it was not good to put new wine into old wineskins. The end result is failure. New wine should be poured into new wineskins (Matthew 9:27).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clinging to the old prevented the Pharisees from embracing the new. They didn\u2019t realize one could actually become a new person, a new creation in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a new creation, we are no longer bound by our past rituals, mistakes, and regrets because our past does not determine our future in Christ (Isaiah 43:18). We are no longer our own, but belong to Christ who lives in us (1 Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 2:20). We sing a new song of praise (Psalm 40:3). We obey a new commandment of loving others the way Christ loves us (John 13:34-35). We are even given a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 36:26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Max Lucado says, \u201c”Christians are not just nice people; they are new people.” So, we are not just better, we are brand new!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old
has gone, the new has come!” ~2 Corinthians 5:17<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short and sweet thought for the week\u2026 When Christ comes into our lives, He makes us a new creation. We aren\u2019t like old cars with a new coat of paint making us look more presentable. The car might look better, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6749,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746\/revisions\/6749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}