Do you know what happens when someone takes their recyclable containers to the recycling bin? Items such as milk jugs, metal soup cans, glass bottles and newspapers can be recycled and made into different items after they have been used.
I once went to a playground years ago and I noticed something really neat. Under the swingsets there were some black rubber mats which had been made from old recycled automibile tires.
What had happened was once the tires had gotten old and worn out, they had all been taken to a factory where they were all chipped up in a big machine and chipped into tiny pellets, which then were used to form something new, like those rubber mats. Instead of a useless pile of old tires, they had been changed into something useful and different.
Many years ago up here in Minnesota, people were allowed to construct a building right on the very edge of a lake to house their boat in, just like a garage, but for boats. Well today you cannot do that, buildings have to be a certain distance from the edge of the lake. But the buildings that were built years ago and still stand can continue to stay there. However, these buildings are obviously getting old and weak.
Because there is a law that states that you cannot construct a new building right directly into a lake, or river, in order to fix those old buildings, they cannot tear it completely down and start new. They have to replace it piece by piece. They can’t tear the whole thing down and build a new one from scratch, but it is completely new inside.
Which is similar to our bodies and our spirit. Our bodies are that old boathouse. We obviously don’t kill our physical body, but when we are baptized and become born again the spirit inside us is transformed, it is changed from a spirit of sin into the Holy Spirit of God. We become a “new creature.”
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
We change from being a servant to sin, and are transformed into what Jesus wants us to be.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2
When you transform something, it means to change the nature, condition, or function of something. To change greatly the appearance or form of, or to convert from one thing to another.
And the word renew means simply to make something new again or to restore it back to original condition
We need to change and turn from being dead in our sins and be changed or transformed into something new. We need to “put to death” the old, unprofitable sinful man and be renewed in Christ. We need to become born again.
I’ve written this before but it is one of the greatest examples, of how Paul used to persecute Christians, throwing them into prison, persecuting them, and even oversaw the stoning of Stephen. But God used him in great ways. Paul became converted; he changed and turned away from that, and became the same thing that he once tried to destroy.
Paul had become a new creature for Christ. Just like Paul, we need to undergo that transformation, so we can present ourselves holy, acceptable unto God. (Romans 12:1)
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 