The apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

The quintessential notion of new beginnings in our society is dramatized by the coming of a new year. It is a time that prompts people to stop and ponder the weightier and sometimes not so weighty matters in life. Deciding to exercise on a regular basis. Drinking eight glasses of water each day. Being kinder to one’s children, spouse, or siblings. Eating to live rather than living to eat. Making time for personal Bible study more frequently. Planning ahead for family vacations.

Unfortunately—more often than not—before too long, our lofty expectations come to a screeching halt in the absence of real change. And change, my friends, is no easy matter. It is a matter of life-style transformation. Radical adjustments. Supernatural alterations.

Real change, and realistic new beginnings essentially lodge in the realm of the divine. Which brings us back to Paul and his talk about being new creations. The Apostle is actually suggesting in this passage that it is worthless for anyone to acknowledge similarity with Christ unless Christ lives in each one. A different reading of the same reality is the image of a person changing from being a child of Satan to being a child of Christ.

The sobering certainty of life on earth is that there are only these two positions available to us. Living in sin or living in grace. Being filled with God’s Spirit or overflowing with the works of the evil one.

Paul is essentially emphasizing that real change and the only ability for true new beginnings lie in a transformed life lived in Jesus Christ. The person who before was once filled with pride and anger is now gentle and modest. Those who once lived for this life and world alone now have God to live for and concentrate not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are eternal. Old things have passed away.

Old things passing away mean little—Paul’s assertion crystallizes—unless the old has been replaced with the new. Such a person is not only mended, but has been made new. What was once in chaotic disorder now stands as God’s work of art, which He pronounces very good (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft).

As members of families, despite each of your configurations, I challenge you to come to grips with the notion of new beginnings as it applies to your respective lives. And in the context of Paul’s message in 2 Corinthians 5:17, realize that real change and new beginnings are only meaningful in the continuum of a life lived in Jesus and through Jesus. It means then, that each day we must begin anew by being born of the Spirit. Enjoy your renewed life in Jesus, and nothing that happens this year will be without a blessing.

Willie Oliver is family ministries director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America. He writes from Silver Spring, Maryland.