New Leaves

“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

Some people want to get everything in their life straightened out before they come to Christ. But you'll wake up in hell and still not have it straightened out. It’s like trees that don’t lose their leaves in the fall. The leaves wither and turn brown but hold on until the spring. And when the new leaf comes, it pushes the old leaf off. That's exactly what happens to your old habits, your old life, when you find the Lord Jesus. The new life pushes your old life off. It’s not a matter of plucking off this leaf and knocking off that one. You'll never do it that way. Let the new life within you do its work. If you are saved you have to come to grip with the fact that your “old nature” is dead and you are a new creature in Christ? You can’t “kill” the old nature on your own. You have to “reckon” the old nature as dead and allow the “new nature”—the new creature you are in Christ—to come alive and be fed and nurtured by the Holy Spirit.