A Time For Renewal

Talk about being renewed! The time for a new start has come, and the gracious gift of renewal has been given once again. God’s promise, inherent in the gospel, is a promise of continued recreation – of new life in the midst of a fallen life, of new hope in the midst of a fallen world. In a word: renewal.

My present renewal has been a work in progress, as it is for most people. It has emerged along a journey from darkness to light. It was not too long ago, though it seems like a lifetime now, that I experienced what has to be the deepest hurt of my life. It was not mine alone but a hurt that included my family as well. I was overwhelmed, shocked, broken. I found myself isolated, even from those closest to me. It was a profound and startling experience. I think it is honest to say that my faith in God was not shaken, but my understanding certainly was, at least for a time.

In that time of uncertainty, renewal started to come. The first real turning point for me was in submitting to the wisdom of a wise friend who helped me to admit that what had been done to me and my family was in fact sin. We had been sinned against. That seems so simple, but it was a hard thing for me to do, to declare that the actions of people I trusted were sinful. It was not easily done, but I was compelled by the gospel to do just that.

You see, the declaration of sin as sin is essential to the gospel. It was not so that I could sit in judgment, to condemn those who had done me wrong. It was so that I could be reminded of the grace of God in Jesus Christ given to me, a miserable sinner, that I might find forgiveness and be renewed. In the same way, by declaring sin to be sin, I could offer forgiveness. It was an act of grace, to the offender to be sure, but most of all to myself. There was no other way for me to be free and that is what I am now, by the grace of God I am free – He is bringing my renewal.

And so I start again. With new life comes new hope and a stronger faith in the person of God, the ways of God and the promises of God, though my understanding seems no greater than before. I will go forward, trusting that God is making me more the man that He created me to be as He works His renewal in me. And as He renews He calls me to be an agent of renewal – one who is transformed by His grace and by His Spirit that through me He might transform the world for His glory, by His Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ the Reigning One. Amen.