Newness, a New Humanity

[HKHaugan]

Newness, A New Humanity 

Years ago, I was moderating a Bible Study on a local TV station that appeared early on Sunday morning.  We relied on a well-known series outline that many churches in the viewing area were using.  One taping session we found ourselves dealing with a new show director.  She approached us and said that we needed to kind of spice it up with a little controversy so that the viewership would grow.  We told her we had an established outline that was widely accepted.  Further, we explained, it was not unusual for us to be greeted on the street occasionally by people who would say we needed to keep up what we were doing.  She was persistent but we didn’t bend.  

The point here is that the media thrive on controversy, make their money on controversy and look for ways to keep whatever the hot topics are stirred up, even if it is a Bible study that strives for unity.  Our panel was an exercise in clergy from different denominations declaring our unity in the Word of God and the Lordship of Jesus.  She just didn’t get it.  I had a sense that being new on the job she was looking to boost her resume at our expense.  And this was just a small panel show on a small station in a small market.  No wonder we feel that the media may be the enemy rather than the ‘accountability holders’ they claim to be.

 The world seems to love fake news, news that meets and serves our biases.  Sometimes I can’t distinguish between the New York Times and the National Enquirer, not that I’m drawn to either.  One flaunts its sophistication.  The other panders to the heart’s hidden darkness.  Yet both work on the same dynamics; heart seduction, pride, class, social and mental exploitation.  Whatever agitates the most sells the most.  It’s not new.  It’s the same old fallen humanity presented in novel ways.  Novelty and newness; they’re poles apart.

 Now follow me here.  This is bottom line important.  The Bible deals with real news, good news, eternal news.  Its aim is the heart which is eternal. All you have to do is ask the Lord Jesus.  His Word tells it all. 

The beauty about the Bible’s good news is that every person is born brand new into the world and the Bible directs every word to the newness in each person. 

No one comes into the world with prior knowledge, cultural conditioning or education. For each person, everything starts from their beginning.  Every breath and thought is brand new to each person.  All education is based on that singular truth, that every person is a brand-new addition to the world. 

 What the Bible does is identify their source, their meaning, their purpose, their significance, their lifestyle and how every next moment is a brand new spiritual opportunity for that person.  They are given a special identity, an eternal identity, as an image of God designed to be a unique and special child of the Father.  The key to exercising their unique newness is faith in Jesus Christ His Son as their guide and the Holy Spirit as their motivator.  Faith and the Bible that shapes it, brings spiritual restoration to a broken world in a new way every time a new person acts in faith.

 If you want to experience real newness, read the Word, pray, leave your comfort zones and see what happens.  You will run into people and that’s when faith kicks in.  You are going to respond one way or the other.  If you are conscious of the Lord Jesus I guarantee something will happen.  It’s the continuing newness that the Lord Jesus brings into your mind at those moments that only you, the new person in that moment, the new moment given you, that you were created for.  For anyone in Christ is new creation.  Paul says it this way, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2Cor.5:17).”

 Let’s look at Jesus’ life, the new humanity, the one He asks you to embrace.  

First, it’s Father centered, “I and the Father are One (Jn.10:30).” 

Second, it’s centered in His Father’s will, “My work is to do the will of my Father (Jn.4:34).”  Third, it is a life centered on the needs of others, “I give my life as a ransom for many (Ml.10:45).”  Fourth, His life is spiritual and eternal, “…whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have life eternal.” 

Fifth, His life is relational and constant, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb.13:8, Rev.3:20).”

Sixth, His life is individually personal and unique “I am going to my Father and your Father (Jn.20:17).” 

Seventh, His life is sacrificial and giving, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the Law, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life (Lk.9:22).”

 That was a brief look at His presentation of who and what He is, but what does He present internally, His nature, the new humanity within?  Here is where He tells about His Holy Spirit and the specific kind of life the Spirit brings.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal.5:22).”  That’s the heart of Jesus.  But the mind of Jesus is as stunning, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a Cross (Php.2:6-8).” 

 So, three things emerge about His interior being, His mind, His heart and His Spirit.  He is the exact image and likeness of God (Jn.1:1, Heb.1:3, Col.1:15).  In Gen.1:26 when God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” it was through Jesus, His image and likeness, that the Father and Spirit brought all of us into being through Adam and Eve.  When they sinned, Jesus came to restore the image and likeness of God in each of us.  Jesus gave us His mind, His heart and His Spirit and through the Spirit works in our threefold image to bring His nature into us.  That’s why we receive Him personally.  Now we are talking new, new, new.  Newness in the flesh.  New every morning, new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord.