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by Dan Kleist
“What are your New Year’s resolutions?”
It’s a common question when a new year
begins, and almost everyone is expected to have made some sort of promise for
change in the year ahead. A new year is much more than a flip of a page on a
calendar – it signifies a fresh start and clean slate, an unwritten page in
which you can become your “best you” and let go of the disappointments of the
past.
What drives our desire to make New
Year’s resolutions? While it’s possible that too much of Grandma’s strawberry fluff
and too many of Aunt Barb’s peanut butter bars could be to blame, resolutions
are often characterized by what is lacking – time management, self control, personal
accomplishments, discipline, feeling healthy, being healthy. Sure, there are
times during the year when we can feel as though we’re doing well or at least
good enough, but most times it just feels like a constant struggle to stay on
top of our priorities and our quality of life suffers as a result. In the end,
our only options are to buckle down and resolve to try harder this year, do our
best to tolerate the problem a while longer until we can make the changes we
need to, or hope things miraculously improve on their own.
A Christian’s faith life can often be similar.
There can be times of joyful clarity, relishing the simplicity and extravagance
of God's love personally, and appreciating and reflecting his love for all people.
Our relationship with God can be undoubtedly solid. Sometimes it can be neither
hot nor cold, perhaps taking his love and presence for granted while still
finding glimmers of joy and hope through his promises and blessings. At its
lowest points, that simplicity and joy of God’s love can seem like a distant
memory, and feel as though there is a "veil" over the eyes of our
heart, which causes a longing for that solid relationship to return. Faith can feel like head-knowledge rather
than heart-knowledge – and that's when it’s easy to notice what is lacking.
So,
what do we do about this? How do we move closer to God when we’re brought to
the realization that we need to make a change? Is a “resolution” toward
spiritual renewal the right answer?
The Struggle for Renewal
The “roller coaster” of faith is
nothing new. It is one expression of the Christian’s struggle with sin since it
first entered our history and created physical, emotional, and spiritual voids
that every human experiences. Perhaps our struggle is the result of neglecting
time in the Word or worship in our search for “balance.” Maybe we started going
through the motions in our devotional and worship time. Sometimes doubts can
surface, and rather than seeking God’s answers to our questions we can let them
stand in the way and spend some time “figuring things out” on our own.
In any case, our sinful nature wants
nothing to do with matters of the Spirit (Galatians 5:17), while the devil and
the world are proactively trying to pull us away and distract us from a
relationship with God. At the same time, the “new man” God has created in us
longs to serve God and walk in that relationship with joy and gratitude. Paul
expressed the struggle with sin clearly when he described his desire to carry
out God’s will and his inability to do so. He finally exclaimed, “What a
wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to
God – through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 7:24-25).
The Resolution for Renewal
Spiritual renewal in our lives does
depend on a resolution – but not our resolve. The resolution was made
by God, in the Garden of Eden, immediately after the curse of sin entered our
lives (Genesis 3:15). God promised to send a Savior from sin – and followed
through on that promise by sending Jesus to be our perfect substitute in life,
and to suffer our punishment in death.
Paul saw himself as victorious over his
struggle with sin, despite the sin’s manifestation (and victories) in his life.
How was this possible? He understood that he was justified before God –
declared not guilty by God himself, because of Jesus’ perfect life, death, and
resurrection. The relationship with God we could not – and would not – pursue
on our own, God freely gives to us! God has made us his own children. Even in
our weak moments of faith, we retain the status of children of God in Christ. Because
of this, we can rejoice with Paul, saying, “Thanks be to God! He gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:7).
The Power for Renewal
Our
justification is done – a one-time event won for us on the cross. In Christ, we
have been made new. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has
gone, and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). At the same time, because of the
struggle with our sinful nature, the life we live as a child of God is one of
constant renewal. Paul said as much when he wrote, “You
have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge and
in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9,10). Taking off your old self and
putting on the new self are things that have already happened. The new self,
however, is also “being renewed…” This renewal is an ongoing process. This is
often our struggle! How do we go about making progress?
Fortunately, this too is God’s work! The Holy Spirit, who brought us to faith in
the first place, gives us the will and has promised us the strength to live the
new life we and God both desire. We are told that “he who began a good work in
you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6),
and, “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good
purpose (Philippians 2:12,13). He does this
work through the means of grace – the gospel in Word and sacrament.
The
gospel message, the source of our renewal, serves as the power for our new life
in Christ. Our baptism serves as a
daily reminder of our justification. In baptism, God appropriates the blessings
Christ won for us on the cross to us – personally, and completely. One author
states that “baptism is the giving of new life, and the new life is laying hold
of baptism.” The Lord’s Supper assures us of our forgiveness – even for the
times we’ve neglected the very means for our daily renewal.
Whenever we experience our spiritual
lows, we have a resolution for renewal. Not our own, but the one God made for
our sake, died to uphold, and for which he provides the strength we need. Through
the means of grace, we see that the renewal we seek is already ours – and we
will continue to be renewed through the gospel means until the day we see our
perfection made complete in heaven. And so again we shout with Paul, “Thanks be
to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
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