In Jesus Christ, there are always new beginnings. That Truth is fundamental to life in the Spirit, indeed, it is a Truth that applies to all aspects of the Christian walk. But so often when we speak of new beginnings we think of THINGS, or of situations, or of our lot in life. New beginnings in Christ certainly can apply to those. Yet if we limit God’s desire to have new beginnings in our lives to just those THINGS, we will miss the point completely.

A new beginning requires a new YOU. Or, to put it another way, God’s new beginning is always possible because YOU have been made new in your relationship with HIM. It really isn’t possible any other way. The foundation upon which a new beginning is laid is that YOU have been made brand new in some aspect of your relationship with Christ. Either you have been changed from the old to the new, or you have come into something in Christ that you never experienced before.

Now, we do need to take note of that – we need to take note of the one necessity of a new beginning: That YOU are new. God is certainly quite capable of changing your situation in life to something new or different. But unless YOU have been made new, and brought into a new dimension of your relationship with Him, well, the same OLD you is going to live in this NEW situation. And if the same old you is living in a new situation, it will only be a matter of time before that same old you turns that new situation into one that resembles the old. Sure. This is almost certain.

There are variables to this, of course. Sometimes God will bring us into a new situation in order to give us the opportunity to personally become new THROUGH IT. He can do this both through blessing and trial. Other times God will absolutely refuse to change our circumstances until we become brand new in our faith and attitude towards Him – while still in the OLD. But make no mistake about it, God is after US, and not simply the circumstances in our lives. He wants to bring US into a newness of relationship. If we won’t enter into the NEW with God, it isn’t going to matter much how new our circumstances are. 

God is a God of new beginnings. But don’t simply think of this as an option. It is more: It is a result. And it is a certainty. If you and I want to walk with God the only possibility is that there is going to be a new beginning, or a series of them. You cannot fall into the hands of God, or walk with Jesus Christ without the result being a new beginning.

The moment you and I touch Christ a process begins. The old begins to pass away, and the new begins to emerge. This is simply the effect Christ has on everything He touches. Notice that Christ doesn’t change. No. Rather, He changes everything that touches Him. This is redemption, restoration, healing, Truth, and resurrection life.

We are saved in a moment, and it is forever. But do we experience the full impact and reality of our salvation in a moment? No. For that it takes a lifetime. When we are saved, we receive ALL of Christ, and consequently, we receive all that is IN HIM. And in Christ is EVERYTHING – all the fullness of God is IN HIM, and now IN US! But in order for us to experience Christ in any measure of that fullness, something must happen: WE must change. WE must be made brand new – in practical and livable ways -- if we are to be able to walk with Christ.

But again – don’t think of this in terms of circumstances in your life. Rather, think of it as a NEW YOU – as a new you in a new relationship with Christ. In addition, don’t think of this as God giving you more of Himself. Rather, think of it as you giving God more of yourself.

In the Christian life, growth is never a matter of God giving us more of Jesus. No. It is a matter of God making us able to see and experience more of Jesus. In other words, Jesus never changes size – He doesn’t get any bigger than He has ever been. Rather, we SEE Him as bigger, because of the change in US. The more we are reduced and decreased, the bigger Jesus will be to us – because WE have changed. Christ is always the same. WE must change to be able to experience Him.

The Bible teaches that if Christ is in you, then you are COMPLETE IN HIM. (see Colossians 2:10) "Complete in Him," means exactly that – nothing more needed. You don’t need a second blessing to complete you, or a booster shot of Christ, or MORE of Jesus after are saved. If Christ is in you, you are complete in Him, and that means that because everything God has for you is already IN HIM – and He is in you.

I would submit that if you think you are NOT complete by virtue of Christ in you, that you are in error. Would you add something more than Christ, or better than Christ, in order to GET MORE complete? Some teach that we need to add to Christ with the Holy Spirit. But it is a fact that Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit. Read Romans 8:9. You cannot escape that fact – and it is a shame that anyone questions it. We are complete in Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through salvation. We simply cannot be made more complete by adding something else!

And yet I have known people, who, upon hearing this, will protest. They point to great lack in the church today, and in the lives of other Christians – and sometimes even in their own lives. They say, "How can you say we are complete in Christ? Look at the mess in the Body of Christ. Something is missing."

Well, if you are born again, Christ isn’t missing. He is in you. But the fact that you are complete in Christ doesn’t necessarily mean that you are growing in Him. It doesn’t mean that you believing and obeying Him. That is why I said that a new beginning isn’t a matter of Christ changing His heart towards you. Rather, it is a matter of YOU changing your heart towards Him. The Christ that is in you is the same today, yesterday, and forever. But YOU must be changed in order to know Him, experience Him, and grow in Him. And Christian people don’t want to change. They don’t want to be reduced to the point where Christ will be bigger to them, or to where He can be their personal Lord. THAT is the problem. WE are the problem. Not Christ.

What is missing in the Body of Christ is faith, holiness, obedience, and freedom in the Truth. You can try to fix this, or even try to add these things, by getting baptized a thousand times over with the Holy Spirit, or by any other experience. These will never solve the problem. You cannot give someone a booster shot in Christ and expect that this is somehow going to change them. No. A new beginning in Christ for anyone is possible only if they come to terms with the OLD – forsake it, repent of it, discard it, and surrender to Jesus as Lord. Then the new beginning can happen because THEY have changed. And if they are saved, then the Christ who is already in them will be seen – He will be experienced in a bigger way. But like I said – this doesn’t mean that Christ ever changes size. No. WE need to change size. The smaller we become in our own eyes – the bigger our experience and knowledge of Christ will be. He never changes size – we just discover Him as He always was, because NOW we see.

If you get what I’m saying, the NEW BEGINNING is just there – we SEE JESUS. We see Him in a new way, and we are altered, indeed, set free by seeing Him. Once I see Jesus I cannot go back – and I won’t want to – I cannot live as I did before. I have been set free by the Truth into a new dimension of relationship with God. Even if my circumstances have not changed, I am living IN THEM under the impact of a new knowledge of God. I am brand new even if everything around me seems just as old as before.

You cannot have a new beginning unless the OLD ENDS. And God’s tool for bringing to the end the old is the Cross. This is so with regards to salvation. But it is also true with regards to the working out of our salvation. If you and I want to be made new, the old must come under the Cross.

Now, since a new beginning in Christ is really predicated upon a new relationship with Christ – made possible by a change IN ME – then it only follows that what needs to come under the Cross is ME. This is what will make possible the NEW – I will be changed, indeed, set free. Once I am under the Cross, and I change, then I can enter into a new relationship with Christ – one not possible beforehand.

I want to again state that the change necessary for a new relationship with Christ must occur in ME. Failure to see this causes confusion for some Christians because we think that either God is reluctant to reveal Himself to us, or that He is indifferent to our desire to know Him. He is neither. If we truly desire to know Christ and have a deeper relationship with Him, the solution is not to move God or change God. The solution is to change US.

Don’t misunderstand. I am not saying that our problem is rebellion. No. Most of the time we don’t even know we must change – or if we do know that, often we know this only as a general principle that we accept. But how can any of us know what ails us? The blind might know they are blind, but knowing it cannot give them sight. Thus, despite the fact that the old us must come under the Cross, and despite the fact that we must be changed to enter into the new, bringing this to pass is not something we can initiate. No. God must bring the Cross. And yet once He does, WE must yield and carry it.

God usually brings the Cross through practical circumstances. But the real issue is spiritual. It is there, in our spiritual relationship with God, that the Cross must be carried, even if there is an outward dynamic. You and I know that whatever it might be that we encounter in life, that what is going on between us and God is what is really at stake. The inward is the core of our relationship with God. The outward is simply one place this relationship is worked out.

To yield to the Cross is nothing more complicated than to say to God, "Into Your hands do I commit my spirit," exactly as Jesus did say on His Cross. The Cross is an instrument of death upon the old – and when we say, "the old," we are really talking about our self-will, self-righteousness, and old ways of thinking towards God. The Cross is intended to take our lives out of our hands, and put them into the hands of God. Of course, WE must, at some point, voluntarily surrender to God for this work – that is why we must commit ourselves into the hands of God.

If you grasp the Truth here, when you surrender to God on your cross, you don’t have any way back. No. A true surrender means that must burn the bridges between you and any other means of escape except God. You are surrendering to death – but not death as a thing unto itself. No. You know you are surrendering into the hands of God for His resurrection. You won’t know where the death will lead as far as circumstances, or your faith life. But you will believe that you are falling into the hands of God, and that will be enough to hold you.

Essentially, surrender to the Cross happens in our FAITH – although it might also involve outward circumstances. We are surrendering, not to circumstances, but to GOD while in the circumstances. This might necessitate some drastic decisions and choices outwardly in circumstances. I might have to burn bridges there, too. I might have to sever ties, and make some drastic moves. God will make this clear, and some of these choices, especially if they involve basic moral issues, will be more than obvious. But the caution here is that we must never try to impress God with outward choices, or try to move Him by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. If we believe God, and are truly making the surrender of faith, the outward will be involved. But never try to substitute for the inner surrender of faith that God is after by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. Surrender by faith FIRST, and if God wants you to jump, this will become plain.

When Abraham stood on the mountain with his hand raised over Isaac, and the angel told him to stop, Abraham did stop. God got what He needed from Abraham – which was faith. The outward, in that case, was not necessary, because God knew Abraham was willing to live out his faith. You can see what I’m getting at. We don’t always know what God will require from us – we don’t always know what is necessary for us to change. Make the surrender of faith and be willing to do whatever it takes to carry your Cross – right to the end. THIS is real change – all in itself. The same attitude of surrender will enable you to hear God and you will be able to do this or that, as God requires. Again – some of these choices will be more than obvious. But others may not be.

When I surrender to the Cross, in a very real sense, the old IS ended. This is, of course, only if my surrender is real. I have settled it once and for all – I’m in God’s hands with no possibility of retreating from my surrender. Once I get to that place, the old is ended, and it is simply a matter of HOW God will resurrect me.

Notice again – it is not my circumstances that are passing from the old to the new. Neither is it GOD. No. It is ME. I am passing from the old to the new because of a changed relationship with God. I have become reduced to a greater extent in running my own life, and thus, have become enlarged in Christ. I see Christ as bigger – not because Christ is bigger – but because I have enlarged vision.

So when we say that the Cross ends the old, we are really saying that the Cross takes our life out of our hands. And since having our life in our own hands is the core of sin – the core of everything that is wrong with the old creation – we can see why the Cross is essential. Through the Cross, I am set free from the power of the old creation – set free from old thinking, old seeing, and most of all, set free from the power of the flesh, that is, from the compulsive desire to make MYSELF the center of the universe. I am set free from blindly owning myself for my own purposes. How could this NOT result in a NEW ME – in a new relationship with Christ?

You cannot enter into a new beginning through study. You cannot get there through self-improvement, or through reading books by Joel Osteen, Paula White, and Robert Schuller. Indeed, most of those kinds of books will teach you how to, "Become a Better You" – in your religious flesh and natural life – rather than in Christ. You enter into newness of relationship with God only through the Cross. You must relinquish ownership over yourself into HIS hands. It must be REAL – there must come a terrible death upon what formerly made you tick. And if this happens, YOU will be changed. And if YOU are changed, then your relationship with God will be changed.

Most of these false teachers today focus on self-help, motivational speaking, and how you might tap your full potential. Some of them try to say that this is what God is after – to release your greatness, and to turn you into a wonderful specimen. This teaching dupes many because we are smart enough to know that a depressed Christian life of self-hate, and one where we are always lamenting our condition, cannot be right. But NEITHER of these options are right. Neither are Christianity. Christianity is not God’s glorification of US, but neither is it the condemnation of US. Rather, it is the glorification and exaltation of Jesus Christ.

This brings us back to what it means to be changed into a NEW YOU. The new you, or new man in Christ, is not occupied with himself – either positively or negatively. Rather, the new man in Christ is DELIVERED from occupation with himself altogether. Sure. He is too occupied with CHRIST. If God’s goal is to exalt and glorify Christ, then if we are growing to know Christ, and coming into the freedom of the Truth, then we are going to be consumed with the glory of Jesus. WE will be an after-thought. We won’t be down on ourselves, or obsessed with ourselves. We will be delivered from ourselves and focused upon HIM.

Of course, what I am describing here is utterly FOREIGN to natural thinking. We know only the options of high self-esteem and low self-esteem. It never occurs to us that BOTH of these are exactly the same – they are SELF. It’s just that some people feel good about themselves, and other don’t – but we don’t realize that both come from a preoccupation with SELF. Both are the same DISEASE – both are the flesh. Or if we do realize that they are both of the flesh, we probably don’t know of any other options, and so we think that God would surely want the new man in Christ to have high self-esteem. So all these self-help books sell! Completely outside of the frame of reference of most of us is the fact that once we see Jesus Christ we won’t care about SELF. THAT is not even an option that is taught today.

The Cross of Jesus Christ, applied to us, will bring a death to the destructive self principle that governs us. But because self is all we have known, this work of the Cross is going to seem negative at first. It is not easy to lose self-ownership when self-ownership is what defines you! But the Cross will get at the heart of this. And once self-ownership begins to die, the result will be freedom in Christ. What could be a better description of a NEW YOU? One who is freed from SELF, and bound to Jesus as Lord!

Now, if you gather up much of what I have been saying, you will see that everything that you are, and everything that God wants for you, is supposed to be the result of your relationship with Christ. In other words, it is a lie to say that God wants to change YOU, and make YOU a better person, and make YOU a happier person – all within yourself. It is a lie to say that Christianity is a matter of God simply acting upon you to change you into a wonderful specimen – independently equipped with personality traits, supposed Christian character, and spiritual gifts. What? Do we think that God is creating, "little christs?" Well, some people DO think that, and it is being taught more and more today. But this is grave error.

Everything we are in Christ is only possible because we are IN Christ – that is – we are what we are because of our relationship with Him. Christianity is NOT a matter of God making us LIKE Christ – but rather, it is a matter of Christ being seen in and through us. The contrast between the two is essential to see. On the one hand, we have the notion that God is turning us into individual Xerox copies of Jesus. This is error. ON the other hand, we have the Biblical Truth that states that Christ is in us, and if we yield to the Cross, Christ will come to be seen through us. This is the new man.

Jesus said, "I am the Vine. You are the branches. Without Me you can do nothing." Some of us have had the notion that God is trying to make us all into separate and duplicate little VINES like Jesus – we think that we are supposed to be another version of Christ; that we are supposed to be a VINE like Christ. No. This is wrong. Rather, we are supposed to be a branch – one that abides IN the One True Vine. Everything that a branch is, indeed, the very source of life for the branch, is fully dependent upon it’s relationship of abiding IN the Vine.

So, in other words, when we talk about the NEW YOU, and a NEW beginning, we really are talking about something that is possible only because of your new relationship with Christ. You don’t become NEW unless you SEE JESUS anew. You don’t become NEW as to your faith unless we are talking about a newness of faith in God. You don’t become NEW simply because you have a new lot in life, or even because you think you have figured out a new way to serve God. No. NEWNESS doesn’t happen in us because God acts upon us, or because we make some changes. Newness is the result of the old dying in us toward God, so that Christ might expand in us. WE are new because, to us, Christ is seen anew.

Newness of life means that I have, not a new beginning to the old, but a new KIND of life altogether. This is based upon a new kind of relationship with God. Instead of ME on the throne, Jesus is Lord. Instead of living according to self, I live according to the glory of God. Instead of natural thinking, I have the mind of Christ. But none of these things come because God adds them to me. No. I already have the potential for them through the Christ who is in me. They come to govern me if Christ comes to govern me. They are not MY LIFE being made better. No. Rather, they are manifestations of HIS life being enlarged in me, and seen through me.

The only kind of new life that God talks about in the Bible is resurrection life in Jesus Christ. Thus, in order for resurrection life to become enlarged in me, I have to come into an enlarged relationship with Christ. This is not a matter of me LIVING LIKE CHRIST – but rather, it is a matter of CHRIST LIVING THROUGH ME. Now, of course, Christ cannot live through me without using me. I must be surrendered. But to make this possible, the OLD must be crucified. Then the new can govern. There is simply no other way.

The relationship between the end of the OLD and the possibility of NEW beginnings are all through the Bible. You cannot have one without the other:

Have we recognized that it is not possible to fall into God’s hands without any other result except a new beginning? Have we recognized that it is barely possible for God to truly accomplish anything unless He does it through a new beginning?

Christians have been sold a bill of goods. We continue to think that God is pleased with the best we can offer. We don’t even realize that much of it is of the flesh – even if it is of religious flesh. We have forgotten the tragedy of Cain.

God must bring down to ZERO what we can offer. I’m not saying that if we give something to God that He will obliterate it. But our OWNERSHIP over it must end. As I have said – this is about US being made brand new. And if WE are made new OVER something in our relationship with God, then God may simply take what we give Him and allow it to continue. But because our ownership over it has died, Jesus is now Lord of both us and the situation.

If we think about this, there is great comfort. It means that when things are being brought down to ZERO, that it is not necessarily a bad thing. It may be a good thing – God is working. He must bring them to ZERO before He can bless. But if you think this through, it really isn’t that God is bringing THINGS down to ZERO. Actually, He is bring YOU and I down to ZERO with regards to things. You and I must be set free from our control over stuff. Then they are zero because you and I are zero. And if you are unsure of what is going on, simply hand them over to God. You have to do that anyways. And if your surrender is real, then when things approach ZERO, you won’t yank them out of God’s hands. You will know they are IN His hands, and be glad they are. Then God can do as HE pleases with US, and with THINGS.

God making things ZERO is simply another way of saying that He is squeezing the power of OUR flesh out of things. FLESH usually involves ownership. We usually inflate things like a balloon – the air being our SELF and our flesh. This usually involves US trying to do things for God, or for ourselves, through our own devices – not governed by Jesus as Lord. So God must let the air out. He will want to set us completely free of trying to do for ourselves what only He can do. There is no other way to accomplish this except to bring us down to ZERO. But then God can fill up, to His glory and by His Spirit, whatever balloon pleases Him.

We must pass through this kind of death and resurrection over things. Again – THINGS don’t so much pass through death and resurrection – WE DO. We pass through death and resurrection in our relationship with Christ. This is a fact even though things might look like they are dying. But even in human relationships we know that if our situation changes, but WE are the same in the new situation, that really, nothing has changed. Sure, the pressures and the dynamics might work out a little different. But if I have a destructive personality I will simply bring it into a new situation, and in time, will probably even ruin that. The solution is that I need to change – not so much that things need to change.

If we are running our own lives, we are going to run them in a new situation, just as we did in the old. If we aren’t living to God’s glory in one thing, what makes us think we will do so in another? We won’t – even if the new situation pleases us more than the old. They key here gets back to the fact that WE must be made new. If we are made new in our relationship with Christ, where Jesus is Lord, and where we are living for Him, then we will bring THAT RELATIONSHIP with Christ into any situation – old or new. And by definition, if WE are new, then in a real sense, we are bringing the new with us. We are bringing Christ with us.

The grass made appear greener on the other side of the fence. But if we surrender to Christ, we will have the personification of green grass in us – and whether we stay on this side of the fence or cross over to a new side, the grass will not be found in the situation. It will be found in US – in Christ. Joseph was in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Paul in prison, and John on Patmos. God seemed in no hurry to take them OUT. But He used the situation where they were to enlarge Christ WITHIN.

It is a principle in the word of God – let God change YOU by giving yourself to Him, no matter where you are. And then, if you do, God is free to take you out or leave you in. But if you force God’s hand and take the initiative, the best you are going to achieve is to bring your old self, and your old relationship with God, or something worse, into a new venue. And in time, that new venue will come under the old unbelief.

God intends to make even a new heavens and earth. But what does this mean? That there will merely be new dirt? A new continental scheme? New oceans? No. It means that above and beyond those possibilities that there will be a new relationship between God and man through Jesus Christ – one that will govern even the heavens and earth. Everything will be made brand new because it will be RELATED TO GOD ANEW. Again – God doesn’t need to be made new. We need that. The world needs that. But all things are defined by their relationship TO GOD. Thus, if we have a new relationship with God, WE ARE NEW.

Because the entire creation FELL into a wrong relationship with God, the solution is to put that old creation aside and make a NEW CREATION. In Christ, God began that. In US, God wants to see the new creation in Christ expressed, lived out, and seen in our relationship with Him.

The great thing about new beginnings in Christ is that any of us can, at any time, no matter what, have a new beginning – even if we’ve had many before. There are always new beginnings possible in Christ. We need only surrender over to Him the old and the present. He can then make us brand new in them.

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