The Smell of New

I love the smell of new! New car, new house, new clothes…. There is a certain agreeable scent that is associated with “new”, and we recognize it when we encounter it. Some people even like it so much that they go out of their way to purchase an air freshener for the car that has that smell. Oddly enough, the odor comes predominately from benzene, a carcinogen….

Regardless of that fact, the smell does evoke certain positive feelings in our minds. A new car, house, clothes – they can all symbolize a fresh start, an unblemished slate, a new beginning. Sometimes it comes to the point where the old cannot be fixed up, repaired or salvaged… no matter what one does, the end result is still something that doesn’t serve its purpose well anymore, so we make the decision to replace rather than to repair.

God’s word says that “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation – the old is gone, the new is come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). I’m interested that God didn’t choose to repair or rejuvenate us when we accept salvation – He chose to make us new. So many times we hear people say that “I can’t help it, that’s just the way I am, I can’t change” or something similar when confronted with actions or behavior that is unproductive or wrong. If you are not “in Christ”, i.e. if you have not decided to follow Jesus, place your trust in Him and submit to His authority, I can maybe see how one might say “that’s just the way I am, I can’t change”, and I can even to a certain extent believe and excuse them. However, if one has decided to follow Christ, and the Holy Spirit is within him or her, one is supposed to be a new creation.

Years ago while attending college, I heard 2 things that have always stuck with me. One was in chapel, the speaker told us that spiritual growth was allowing the Holy Spirit to de-emphasize and change those aspects of our personality that were harmful, negative and contrary to what God desires. The other was a statement by one of our dear professors, who said: “The Bible does not allow Christians to sin. It recognizes that they WILL sin, and there is grace and forgiveness, but it does not allow or condone sin.”

So what does this all mean? Does God wave a magic wand and presto change-o make us new upon our conversion?

I think we all know that is not the practical immediate result of conversion…

When we accept God’s forgiveness, he looks at us and sees us through the filter of Jesus’ perfection. God sees us as we will be someday when we are in heaven and free from imperfection. Even if we have not established new habits and cast off the old, we are declared righteous, and God sees us that way. For us, we do our best with the help and power of the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus each day – constantly being made new. When we become aware of something we are doing, a habit that needs changing, some action or behavior we need to change, we cannot use the excuse that “that’s just the way I am, I can’t change”. If what we are doing is in opposition to God or conflicts with how we should live as a new creation, it needs to change. Indeed, perhaps we ourselves are powerless to change, but the power of the Holy Spirit within us can give us the strength to do so.

It may come as a shock to you, but I am not perfect. (That was a joke!) Just ask those who know me well – my wife, my co-workers… One thing I have started doing lately is to ask God to get my attention when I’m faced with a decision to be a new creation or not. I have my own challenges, habits – so do you. My dear mother used to use the old King James term “besetting sin” to describe them. (from Hebrews 12:1 “ Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so effortlessly ensnares[easily besets] us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us”). When faced with those decisions, I simply say to myself: “Hey man, remember, you are a NEW CREATION, so by the power of the Holy Spirit choose to live like it!” I don’t always remember to do so, I still fail and make mistakes, but more and more I find that God has allowed me a better awareness of what it means to be a new creation in Christ, and I’m less likely to say “that’s just the way I am, I can’t change”.

So what about the smell of new? In 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 God’s word tells us: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?” This gives me a picture in my mind of a military parade as the army returns after a victorious war. To those set free by the army, the smell of its victory is sweet… to the defeated oppressor, the smell is of defeat and death. If we are a new creation in Christ, we are to God and the world around us in need of rescue, the “smell of new”. To the forces of evil and those who stand against us we are a carcinogen, the smell of death and defeat.

Don’t you love the smell of new?

Grace and Peace,