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Q. Isn't all this talk of transformation pretty radical?

A. Most of us think and act like God is simply remaking us in a Holy Ghost reform school of some sort. But God isn't interested in just saying "Let Me tweak this, adjust that, and change that." No, He chucks the old and creates something brand new!"

Is that really possible?

Imagine for a moment that you've wrecked your beloved Chevrolet. Your insurance estimator looks at it and says, "This car's totaled. There's nothing that can be done for it." You've just accurately pictured the way you and I appeared when God looked at us before we surrendered to Jesus. "This life is totaled. There's nothing that can be done for it in the natural. It's beyond repair." You'd probably say, "Well, what do I do?"

Now imagine your insurance representative tells you, "How about taking the keys to this brand-new car?" When we ask what can be done, God says something that no insurance adjuster in his right mind would ever say to an earthly customer: "Here's your key to a new life in Christ."

"But God, I totaled a Chevrolet. This is the key to a new Cadillac!"

He says, "That's all right." You'd accept that kind of a deal, wouldn't you? That's a picture of what God means when he says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." You are not just something that He worked over and patched up. He didn't restore you, remake you, reconstruct you, or remodel you. He reconciled you by making you a totally new creature.

Joseph L. Garlington is the senior pastor of Covenant Church of Pittsburgh.

Adapted from Right or Reconciled? (Destiny Image, 1998).

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Prayer for the Week

Jesus, I praise you for loving me—please make me a new person in the image of You.

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