Feeling Refurbished?

 

     Have you ever bought a computer or tablet that has been ‘refurbished’? They’ve taken it apart, cleaned it up, and theoretically fixed what wasn’t working properly. You can save quite a bit of money that way, but you also wonder how long it will last. Does it have a warranty? On Amazon, they now call these ‘renewed’. 

     I was pondering this concept after I read one of Brian Simmons (Passion Translation) comments on us as New Creations.  This morning his comment on Galatians 6:15 stopped me again. “What really matters is the transforming power of the new creation life.”  God’s word says He makes us ‘new creations’ when we receive Yeshua as our Savior and entrust our lives to Him. New Creations. That’s not rehabilitation or refurbishment, or reconstruction. It’s total transformation into a new creature.  He doesn’t just ‘reboot’ us or take us apart, as my mechanical engineer sons do, laying our pieces on a table, cleaning them, oiling them, fixing broken parts, and then putting everything back together, ‘good as new’.

     Although I’m a great fan of rehabilitation (and God is all about the ‘re’* words), it is not a true image of the work of our Creator’s hands. Although we may at times feel simply rehabilitated, reconstructed, or even more like a jumble of parts struggling to function together; that is not who we are. That is not how He sees us, either. His eyes light up at His stunning new creation, made in the likeness of His Son. 

     In his 51st psalm, David asked the Father to ‘create in [him]a new heart. A new heart. Not to just clean up and fix the old, broken, soiled one. Hmmmm.

     Lately, my nearly 70 year-old-body (and sometimes soul) is feeling in need of refurbishment and renewal. Yet, even renewal is not an adequate term for the transforming power of God in and over those who ‘have died with Him and will one day be resurrected like Him.’ In fact, God’s word says that ‘the same power that conquered the grave lives in us….now!*** Start seeing what God sees. Picture yourself not just rebuilt or even simply injected’ by His Holy Spirit, but totally transformed into a new creation. Tell the struggling ‘members’ of your body, soul, and spirit who they really are. Instruct them to ‘hop to it’ and run that race set before you with new creation zeal! 

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“We have become His poetry, a re-created people, that will fulfill the destiny He has given each of us.” —Ephesians 2: 10 (TPT)

*Renewal, Restitution, Redemption, Revival, Revolution, Reinvigoration, Reassurance, Reawakening, Rebirth, Recoupment, Recovery, Rectification,, Recuperation, Re-establishment, Regeneration, Reformation, Refreshment, Refuge, Rejuvenation, Rejoicing,… (I could keep going, but I will spare you.)

** See the Passion Translation’s comment on Psalm 51:

***Ephesians 1: 19-20

1 Thessalonians 3:10