In Pursuit of JesusSample

Innocence Found

“I’m not who I once was. I’m a new person.”

Those simple words from my son, spoken to students at a school assembly, describe the change God made in his life. Once addicted to heroin, Geoffrey previously saw himself through his sins and mistakes. Now he sees himself as a child of God.

The Bible proclaims: “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). No matter our past, when we trust Jesus for our salvation and receive the forgiveness offered through His cross, we become someone new. Since the garden of Eden, the guilt of our sins separated us from God, but He has now “brought us back to himself through Christ . . . no longer counting [our] sins against [us]” (vv. 18–19). We are His dearly loved children (1 John 3:1–2), made new in His Son’s likeness.

Jesus is innocence found. He liberates us from sin and its dominating power and restores us to a new relationship with God—where we are free to no longer live for ourselves but “for Christ, who died and was raised for [us]” (2 Corinthians 5:15). As with Geoffrey, Christ’s transforming love gave him a new identity and purpose to point others to the Savior. And He does the same for us! —James Banks

What does it mean to you to know that a new beginning is possible with God? How can you live as His new creation today?

Abba, Father, thank You for sending Your Son to save me so that I could be Your child. Please send me to someone who needs to come home to You today!