newness

Though I can't say I'm excited about a "new" year, I am rather taken with the newness we experience together in Jesus. And because of that alone, I can look forward to the new year.

Moltmann, who I want to read sooner than later has written something like: The hope we have in Jesus is a hope that is related to all we experience in this life now- not merely about the future. I don't have the exact words nor can I get to the source at the moment. But this seems to me to be related to the words in 1 Peter that we have a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It looks forward, but even more it lives in a forward mode, an already though not yet finished mode. It's a hope that gives us certainty, by faith, of what we look forward to. But it is alive in that we experience by the Spirit something of that future hope now.

Newness is not just about us, but it's about what God is doing in Jesus in the bringing in of the new creation for all the world, which by judgment and grace is beginning to touch the world now, and will make all things new. Our lives individually and together are a sign and indication to the world of this new creation in Jesus, and actually, along with the gospel, the primary means God uses in Jesus in beginning this now. So we should not be surprised to find this newness spring from areas that have been dead, and even under God's judgment, and this should encourage us in our lives and witness.

Scattered thoughts here, but I'm simply thankful to God for this ongoing newness to us in Jesus that despite the wearing on us of this life, gives us a sense of knowing this is the path of life, ongoing life, as opposed to the death of all else.

What thought might you like to share here?