the renewal of all things

We have an amazing promise from God: if anyone is in Christ, he (she) is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17 - ESV).  Once we have come in to Christ, and our life of sin and death has been crucified with Christ and swallowed up by His Victory, we are quite literally born again.  It's as tangible as if we had somehow re-entered our mother's womb and have emerged to begin life all over again.  

But if that isn't enough, the actual language of that verse says more: if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has begun (NIV) or, more simply, in Christ...new creation.  It's not just that The Life, Death, Resurrection, Glorification, and Intercession of Jesus makes us new, but it makes all things new.  A new creation has begun for us and for all creatures, including humans who will believe it and receive it.  The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21).  This is what Jesus was speaking of in describing the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne (Matthew 19:28).  He's on the throne, now.  So that renewal, that new creation, has already begun, now.  It's on its way, and will be fully completed when the new heaven and the new earth are finally brought together.  From the throne He says, I am making everything new! (Revelation 21:5).  Don't be deceived by appearances to the contrary.

Friends: write this down on your heart and mind this day.  He is making you, and all things around, new.  Do you not perceive it?