Therefore, 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)
I remember where I was the first time I truly heard and paid attention to this verse. I was in a college gymnasium, surrounded by two thousand other teenagers in southern Mississippi. It was an evening session of Momentum Youth Conference in the summer of 2007, and the speaker was explaining how your life would and should look different after Christ.
I thought back to my little six-year-old self at Neighborhood Bible Club asking Jesus into my heart. I believe in that moment I knew Jesus died for me, taking the punishment of my sins, and that by accepting this I would have a relationship with Him and spend eternity in heaven. But I don’t believe in that moment I fully grasped what a life lived for Jesus would look like.
Fast forward through ten years of Sunday school lessons, summer camp experiences, and Wednesday night kids ministry to a teenager trying to fully comprehend what it means to be changed by Jesus. I spent some time wrestling with this question before I truly decided I wanted Jesus to change my life. I wanted — needed — Him to make me a new creation. And because He did indeed make me new, I wanted to spend my life serving Him.
Once your life has been changed by the Gospel of Jesus and you’ve been made new, everything about your life changes — the relationships you pursue, the career path you follow, the location where you live. Once Jesus has truly gotten ahold of your life, you can’t help but live for Him and tell others about Him.
The Gospel is the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ. God created us to be with Him, but because of sin we have been separated from God and need a path back to a right relationship and eternity with Him. The message that God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to take the punishment of our sins, that He was buried and rose from the dead three days later, and that He is coming back again is the message of ultimate reconciliation that never changes or gets old. That is the goodness of the Gospel, and it changes everything.
Written by Randi Walle for the Year in Review 2023–2024. Randi serves as the editor and communications manager for the Charis Fellowship. She is a member and life-long attender of Grace Polaris Church in Westerville, Ohio, where she serves as the communications director.