Recalibrating

Recalibrating
It is a new year. 2023 has come and gone. Many people will be scratching out the three and replacing it with a four for the next few months. It will take a little bit of time for everyone to get used to writing or typing 2024. Yet, a new year does not simply provide an opportunity for mishaps on dates, but also for focus. During this time many people make resolutions for the new year. Some set goals to be achieved throughout the year. Some take time to evaluate the year gone by and review what they have or have not done. So, whatever you do personally, in some way you are probably refocusing/recalibrating something in your life as we press on into 2024.

For the Church it is important for us to always be reminded and reshaped by the gospel. We have a tendency to become distracted, busy, and perhaps even consumed with many things. Sometimes they are even good things. Yet, whatever they may be we ought not ever let them take away from our understanding of, and delight in, the gospel. For it is the gospel on which we will stand or fall. So then, what is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. We have sinned against a holy God (Rom.3:10-18). As law-breakers we deserve the full justice of God (Ps. 75:8). Yet, God is merciful and sends His only-begotten Son to live among us (Luke 2) and to live, die, and be raised again to save all who would believe in Him. It is in believing in Christ Jesus that we have full pardon of our sins before God, and have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. In other words, when we believe in Jesus our sins are taken away and we can stand before God the Father as if we were Christ because Christ took our sins far away (Psalm 103). Now, being made new by the Holy Ghost (John 3) we are able to live for Christ and please God (Col. 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:9). Yet, we are not now what we will be. Until the Lord returns, or we go to be with Him, we are involved in a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). Therefore, we look to the day that Christ will be with us and we will be with Him. That He will bring to ultimate fulfillment the promise that God has given to His people all throughout Scripture. That He will be our God and will be His people. 

So, whatever your goals, resolutions, plans, or the like are for 2024, may they never eclipse the gospel of our Lord. As you set out into this new year, may it be unto the glory of Jesus Christ and the furthering of His Kingdom.

Grace be with you, 
C. R. Hamilton