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This world and everything in it is radically different from the way God made it. Adam and Eve’s rebellion not only affected them, it affected the universe and everything in it. When they fell, they dragged the universe down with them.

Rabbi Paul put it this way in his letter to the Romans: The creation was subjected to frustration. It’s in bondage to decay. The whole creation is groaning.

And those who live in this fallen creation are subject to the same forces. Creation is groaning, and so do we. We are in bondage to decay. Our lives are frustrating. We become tired, weary, worn out, increasingly jaded – especially the older we get. Life can feel like walking on a treadmill.

But, the Lord’s Representative also tells us that creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. A time is coming when the entire universe will stop groaning and will be freed from its frustration and it’s bondage to decay. Creation will be reborn and become like we will become – the free and glorious sons and daughters of God.

We have this tremendous promise from the One sits on the throne of Heaven: I am making all things new.

And God’s promise to make all things new is already at work. It is already available to chosen individuals – because of Yeshua.

Because of the incarnation, and Messiah’s perfectly righteous life, and His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension, followed by the giving of the Spirit, human beings can experience being made new. Because of Yeshua, it is possible to experience newness of life – now, in this world, in this life.

We can experience newness of life because Christians and Messianic Jews are able to get close to God in a new way – not like the old way – animals being killed at the temple and their blood sprinkled on the altar. When we know that Yeshua is alive, and is the living Lord and Savior, and we transfer our loyalties to Him, we are united to Him who is united to God the Father. We are able to get close to God in a new and living way.

We can experience newness of life because we able to serve God in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter – which means that our religion is real, genuine, not a facade. We really have a personal relationship with the living God. We really know Him and what He wants. We really serve Him with the right motivations.

We can experience newness of life because the Holy Spirit, lives in us in a new way, a way the world can’t experience, and He empowers us to live a new life that pleases God.

The Holy Spirit gives us power to overcome the things that tempt us; ; power to be led by God; power to serve God; power to witness; power to endure to the end and be saved.

We can experience newness of life because Christians and Messianic Jews receive a make-over. We become new creatures. If anyone is in Messiah he is a new creature. Those of us who are in Messiah, which means are united to Yeshua, become new creatures, new men, new women. We receive a new nature, a godly nature. Because our new nature is patterned after God’s nature, it doesn’t want to rebel against God like our old nature did. It wants to do what is right; it wants to please the Lord; it wants to become more like Messiah.

We can experience newness of life develop a new perspective. We develop new values, new goals, new priorities – a hunger and thirst for righteousness, not for worldly success; a life dedicated to serving God, not self: a life devoted to proclaiming the Good News and building up Messiah’s Community, not a life lived in pursuit of money or power or pleasure or acquiring more and more things.

We can experience newness of life because we have been given a new commandment which redirects our priorities. “A new commandment I give to you,” Messiah said, “that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another“. This new commandment is not new in time, because the command to love was given earlier, but it is new in emphasis.

Our highest priority is to love God with the totality of our being, and then love other human beings, helping them in spiritual and practical ways. And, this new commandment is new as far as extent. We are to love others like Messiah loved us – to the maximum degree – doing what is best for them, putting their interests above our own.

We can experience newness of life because we participate in Messiah’s new covenant, a new agreement between God and human beings that enables all of our sins to be forgiven; a new agreement that provides an awareness of God and an understanding of His Word at the core of who we are.

We can experience newness of life because we become part of the one new man, a new united humanity made up of the Chosen People and the peoples from the nations who are reconciled to God and to one another; a new community of human beings who are in a right relationship with the God and with each other; a new community of love and fellowship and friendship and brotherhood and support and encouragement.

We can experience newness of life because we have the sure hope of living forever in a New Heavens and a New Earth and a New Jerusalem where only those people who are in a right relationship with the Three-In-One God can exist. We will receive a new name that reflects our new identity. That hope energizes us and strengthens us and renews us.

While it is true that the sons and daughters of God are to be experiencing newness of life, now – in this fallen world, even our newness of life can get old. It’s all too easy to return to the ways of the old nature, to old ways of thinking and acting. Our challenge is to walk in newness of life and maintain our newness of life. And so from time to time even our newness of life needs to be renewed.

How do we do that?

We learn how to wait for the Lord. We wait on Him like a servant waits on his master. We look to Him with our mind and heart as a toddler looks to his mother. We get close to Him and we stay close to Him. Here is His promise to those who wait for Him: The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth does not become weary or tired. And He shares His unlimited strength with those who wait on Him. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. And He renews them. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Waiting on the Lord empowers us and renews us.

So, when you are feeling weary, tired, worn out, discouraged, far from God, don’t do what people in the world turn to to try and make themselves feel better – things like a new relationship, or drugs or alcohol or various entertainments, or one of their favorite sins. Turn to God and wait on Him and He will give you new strength for life’s journey.

We can renew our newness of life by understanding that God provides new compassions every morning. Jeremiah encouraged his people who had sinned and were suffering the consequences: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. Chadasheem lah-b’ka-reem – they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The prophet understood that in spite of Israel’s sins, and the devastating consequences that resulted from them, God had compassions for His people, feelings of love, accompanied by new grace for them that was there at the dawn of every new day.

Those same compassions that are new every morning – are also available to us. If we believe that each day is a new day full of the never-failing compassions of a loving and faithful God, a day with new grace, new mercy, new forgiveness – we will experience newness of life that day.

We can renew our newness of life by unchaining ourselves from the failures of the past. Past failures and the bitterness that comes from an unwillingness to forgive can immobilize us in the present. Rabbi Paul talked about the desire to unchain himself from dark things in his past.

He compared his new life to a man running a race. He was sprinting toward the finish line of a life of good attitudes and good deeds that was worthy of a great reward. Like a runner who would not run well if he was looking backward, Paul understood that he needed to focus his attention on what was in front of him – not on the sins of the past.But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward.

Many people get immobilized by events from their past. Past failures, past sins, past hurts and the unwillingness to forgive those who have hurt them prevent them from moving forward and accomplishing everything they could. Not Paul. He knew that the atonement of the Son of God was so powerful that all of his previous failures, great though they were, were completely forgiven. Paul believed that each new day provided a new opportunity to give God his all. So he made a decision to forget the failures of the past and reach out to the potential victories that were ahead. That helped him maintain newness of life in the present.

We need to do the same thing. Are you chaining yourself to the mistakes of the past so that they are immobilizing you in the present? Unchain yourself by believing the Word of God, that God’s grace is able to forgive the greatest sin; that God will give us the grace to forgive those who have sinned against us – and move forward.

We can renew our newness of life by frequent repentance. Sin in the present will diminish our newness of life. When we yield to temptation, we diminish our newness of life. When we realize that, we admit our failures. We confess our sins and we turn to God with sorrow and ask Him to forgive us. We make amends where we can make amends. We put the proper safeguards in place so we won’t fall back into the same sin so easily. And, we have His marvelous promise: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from everything that we have done wrong. Then God will fill us with His Spirit and we will experience newness of life once again.

A new year is about to begin. We don’t know what a new day may bring, let alone a new year. But we do know that no matter what happens, God has made it possible to live in newness of life. This last week of 2015, and throughout 2016, let’s walk in that newness of life, and do those things that will maintain that newness of life. Amen?