Everybody, somewhere down deep, wants a do-over. A clean slate. A chance to start the whole thing again. And people chase it: a new town, a new job, a new face, a new relationship, a New Year’s resolution. Let me tell you why none of that ever quite works, and what actually does.
“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, KJV)
Every do-over you’ve tried was on the outside
Here is the trouble with a move or a makeover, child of God: you take yourself with you. You change the scenery, but the same heart shows up in the new place. Those are all external fixes, and the problem was never external. God is not offering you a fresh coat of paint. He is offering an extreme do-over: a brand-new you, on the inside, that lasts forever.
The one word that makes it real: “in Christ”
And it all hangs on two words: “in Christ.” Not near Christ, not admiring Christ: in Him, joined to Him by grace through faith: “by grace are ye saved through faith… it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). In Him you get a new standing (“no condemnation,” Romans 8:1), a new master (“sin shall not have dominion over you,” Romans 6:14), a new nature, and a new destiny: “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). God does not repair the old man; He creates a new one.
How to get it: believe on the Son
And how do you receive the greatest do-over there is? The same way the Bible always says: “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31); “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). Come to Christ, and the Holy Spirit moves in: regenerating, sealing, guiding you the rest of the way. So stop trying to renovate the old life. In Christ, old things are passed away; all things are become new. That is the extreme life do-over. Glory to God.
Related Teaching
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
Watch the teachingNew verse by verse studies go out every week on YouTube, King James Version, with the passage on the screen. Subscribe to The Prevailing Word of God, taught by John Kempf of Melbourne, Florida.