I bought a birthday card at Joseph’s the other day. I went in for potatoes and the card was an impulse buy. There it was halfway between the produce and the check-out and it was calling my name. I think it’s hilarious and I hope the person I’m saving it for shares my sense of humor.
The front is a sepia-toned photo with curly edges stuck in corner tabs as if in an old photo album. Two grandmas are arm in arm in front of a 1950 Mercury (not the lead sled version). They are pledging to be friends forever, and when they become old and senile, then they will become “new” friends. How’s that’s for putting a positive spin on the aging process? The verse in the corner is from 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Behold, all things are become new.”
I was sure Paul didn’t write this verse just so it could be used on a greeting card so I looked it up and read the surrounding verses for context. Sure enough, that isn’t what he had in mind at all. In fact, he wasn’t talking about getting old or getting senile. The phrase used on the card is only the very end of the verse which reads, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Becoming new was something Paul was familiar with. He hadn’t grown senile, but his entire life had been turned upside down. Before his conversion, Paul saw Jesus as just another man and those who preached in his name as false prophets who were blaspheming the God he served. After his conversion, Paul affirmed his new life and his desire to boast not in what he had done for God, but in what God had done for him—“But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ….” (Galatians 6:14). No longer was he the proud Pharisee intent on silencing the followers of Jesus. He had become Jesus’ strongest advocate.
When he wrote to the Corinthian church, what a powerful truth he gave them. To become a transformed individual isn’t because of what we do, it’s because of who we are. A man or woman in Christ is a new creation. For some, that’s a hard pill to swallow. Standing on our own two feet and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps is what it’s all about. We can take care of ourselves and fix our own problems, thank you very much. Well, actually, we can’t. To experience the changes we so desperately need in our relationship with others and more importantly with God, we must be “in Christ”. Verse 15 explains that this new life in Christ means no longer living for ourselves, but for Jesus who died and rose again on our behalf.
Since we are truly a new creation in Christ, then the old things have passed away. Not only have we benefited from God’s amazing grace which justifies us before God, but this grace also results in our changed lifestyle. And when we find ourselves back in our old way of life and not in that place where “all things have become new”, we have God’s gracious forgiveness found in 1 John 1:9.
I like the card I bought because it caught my eye and tickled my funny bone. But I like even better that instead of focusing on getting older, I can rest in the promise that in Christ, “all things are become new!”