The Old Has Gone, Almost

I write this in the first few days of a New Year on the calendar. We know that the old year has gone forever, just like yesterday. In fact, are you sure it is a new year yet? In Western cultures its start has been a moving target for millennia, and other cultures have varying dates. A new year is just a line in the sand!

The old Roman calendar had just 10 months and the new year started in March. December (“decem” is the latin word for “ten”), in the northern hemisphere winter, lasted from our December until the start of March, the start of spring! Other names of months agree with this: September is from “septem” for “seven,” October is from “octo” for “eight” — an “octave” is eight notes on a musical scale. This system was based on the cycles of the moon.

Julius Caeser had other ideas, and he introduced in 45 BC a new calendar based on cycles of the sun. It had twelve months and the year started on January 1st. Leap years were added to keep the calendar in step with the sun. His calendar lasted until 1582 when Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar, mainly to adjust leap years and the date of Easter.

So what does all this have to do with the Word of God? When we celebrate New Year we have no doubt the old is gone. But when it comes to II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (ESV), a large proportion of Christians are not convinced that the “old has gone” (NIV) and believe that bits of it are still around and affecting our lives!

So the old “has gone, almost,” and some teach we will have to put up with some of the old until the day we die, thus making death our savior. However, as with the calendar year, the only remains of the old are in our memory! It is hard to deliberately erase facts from our memory, so the memory of the old life is still there but the reality of it is not! When God states an absolute we must believe it in spite of what our senses tell us.

In the practical “Walk” section of Ephesians we read how to handle this radical truth, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!– assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV).

“Put off” and “Put on” are bracketing “be renewed in the spirit of your minds” in verse 23, and that is where the actions have to take place. Line up your attitudes and thoughts with what God has said about you, “Now we are children of God…” (I John 3:2), even if the outward suggests otherwise. This mind change or renewing (Romans 12:2) is the only way to victory in the Christian life. It is not a commendation of license but a pathway to liberty!

The letter to the Colossians says, “Who has delivered us out from the power of darkness and has transported us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14 ESV). “Out from” and “into;” your location is clear. Renew your mind to the truths that not only has the “old passed away” within you, but you are living in a new country!

It is interesting that most preachers believe in the “new has come” in all its varied facets, but not that the “new” was a complete replacement of the “old.” As if God’s pure life could co-exist with the filth of Satan’s nature!

So wherever you draw the line in the sand for the start of the New Year, be convinced that a line was clearly drawn under the old you. A completely brand new life was started when you became a Christian and acknowledged Jesus as Lord of your life. — Peter Wade.