Word on the Web

04 Jan 2010: The Old Has Gone, The New Has Come!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I love the scene in the movie version of C.S. Lewis’, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Lucy encounters the faun, Mr Tumnus. As Lucy extends her hand to Mr Tumnus, he curiously asks, “What do you do with it?”
“You shake it,” Lucy replies, to which the faun exclaims, “Why?”!
In today’s global society these kinds of awkward moments are not so uncommon. When we bump into people whose customs, greetings, and language are unlike ours, we experience a flash of “culture shock.” Once while on a trip to West Africa, in spite of feeling welcomed and befriended by the warmth of the people there, my wife and I were keenly aware that we were different. We did not fit in and found ourselves longing for the comforts and familiarity of home.

Which makes me wonder... If we are “New Creation” people - citizens of heaven whose real home is yet to come - why do we so often feel at home in this old world order? Why are our lives still in the grip of the marks of our fallen culture? Why do we so likely lean toward greed and self-centeredness? Why does pride easily set up residence in our hearts while Christ’s humility seems so foreign? Why do we fit in so well, when, as Paul says, our real citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20)? It seems to me that we should feel a little more “spiritual culture shock” when we rub shoulders with the world!

The cultures of the heavenly and earthly kingdoms are mutually exclusive. In fact, totally incompatible. The apostle John states it bluntly: “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). And yet it is surprising how vulnerable and susceptible we are to the lure of this fallen world system.
Jesus gave His life to redesign us from the inside out as His new creations. If we would get a handle on this reality, every time someone would walk from the dark, doomed, world, into our homes or our churches, they would get a refreshing glimpse of heaven. They would experience a taste of the new kingdom and the new creation—the presence of Jesus himself—in our lives.

Go ahead… surprise someone with a taste of heavenly culture shock!