Stan Moody
New Year’s Day is welcomed by us all as a fresh start – a symbol of hope that the coming year
will be better than the last. For the Christian, the New Year can be viewed as one of continued
spiritual transformation despite following a past year of great distress: “He who has begun a new
work in me through Christ will carry it on to completion…” (Phil 1:6).
Ezekiel 36:26 was a New Year’s message to God’s people experiencing dramatic decline: I will
give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. We are reminded of God’s sovereign power over His
people: “I will give you…”; “I will put within you…”; “I will remove from you…”.
“I Make All Things New!”:
We believers can be living witnesses of a community of hope despite our circumstances. We are
being renewed and transformed every day of our lives. God gathers His people, cleanses them
with water, creates a new heart within them, pours out His Spirit upon them, and gives them a
land to live in – a Promised Land that in the Gospel Age has been transformed from a piece of
real estate in Jerusalem (or in Colorado Springs) to the global present, dynamic, triumphant
Kingdom of God.
“I make all things new!” – not just on January 1, but on Jan 2 and 3 and every day of the year.
Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is (already) a new creation. The old has passed away; the
new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). New Year’s Day, then, is a reminder of the transforming effects of
grace.
The End of the Lust for Novelty:
That newness that Jesus brings to us is something far greater than just another spiritual high. We
become at every moment ready for a new day; a new week; a new month; a new year; a new life.
In our weariness with the old system of actions and reactions dictating our steps, we begin to
leave behind a childish lust for novelty in our lives. The old, old Gospel is the newest thing in the
world – in every way the good news because it promises not only redemption but renewal.
“Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5), says Jesus as He adopts his people into sons and
daughters of the Living God. That bridges the gulf between earth and heaven, does it not? We
are no longer shouting to get into the family; we are in the family, and the days, the weeks, the
months, and years unfold as God desires – not only as we may hope. We have become new
creatures – new victims, if you will – victims not of the evils of our generation but victims of the
grace of a loving God who brings to us all things new.
A New Song in Our Hearts:
In our hearts, God has planted a new heaven and a new earth. We no longer have to reach for
God; He has come to dwell with us. Those joys that we found in money, relationships, career,
etc. are somehow fading into the shadows. The Bible is taking on new life, transformed from the
words of God to the Word of God, and we treasure it not only for its commands but for its life-
giving force.
He has put a new song in our hearts, and we must sing it. The mountains and hills break forth
into singing, and we cannot be dumb. Praise is our new delight. “Behold, I make all things new.”