Spring Cleaning and Newness of Life

Why is it around this time every year we feel an urge to clean? We seem to be hardwired to start cleaning up our yards and our homes just as the weather gets warmer and the grass gets greener. We get rid of the old and replace it with the new? New bushes, new paint, new clothes. The former things are replaced, maybe as a sign that we are longing for what is coming. We are anticipating Spring. Warmer weather, vacations, planting a garden. There is excitement and our lives are altered to prepare. There is a sense of urgency because we know that the newness of Spring is coming.

We are currently in the process of changing our Church Management Software and in order to bring our existing data into the new system, we are having to clean it up. We are having to look through every line and entry to see if it is good data or if it is outdated. We certainly do not want to bring old, out of date, inaccurate data into the new system.
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If you are still reading, this is where I turn from this pleasant conversation and start meddling in your spiritual life. When is the last time you spent any time looking through your life to see what belonged and what did not belong? My guess is that it has been awhile. The things that are in our Christian lives that do not belong are kind of like the stuff cluttering your closets. We know that it is there, but we have just gotten used to it. It serves no purpose and is only taking up space.

As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ in the coming weeks, let me remind you as a believer what scripture says about the junk in your life.

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Romans 6:4
"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

Isaiah 43:19
"Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

1 Peter 1:3
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

As believers, we are raised to walk in newness of life. Newness requires space to grow, it requires full faith in the hope of Christ. When you are in Christ, you are given a new identity. You are no longer your own, you belong to Christ. Here is what God declares about you:

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10

Robert B. Kruschwitz gives this perspective: “Christ’s resurrection guides us into “newness of life,” which is life here and now, but with a new, eschatological dimension. We examine everything we feel, think, and do from a new perspective that takes our present bodies, our resurrectional bodies, and Christ’s body (which is the Church) ever more seriously.”

Are you walking in newness of life? Is your full identity in Christ’s death and resurrection? Are you striving to continually identify and evaluate the worldly labels and identities that you are holding on to so tightly? Your life – my life needs a spring cleaning. We are hoarding junk in our lives that is in contradiction to the new life that Christ has called us to.

Pastor Cameron


Raised to Walk in Newness of Life: Robert B. Kruschwitz; Copyright © 2014 Institute for Faith and Learning at Baylor University