Sep
25
Fresh Install
Filed Under Devotional
I am in the process of helping a friend bring an old laptop back to life. He wasn’t even sure if still worked when he dug it out of the closet and gave it to me. I was able to get it to start up. I could tell that with a fresh install of the OS, we’d probably be good to go. So, I called my friend back and explained the situation. I pointed out that a reinstall would destroy any data he had on there, so I wanted to make sure he didn’t want to try to rescue anything first.
He then said something to me that, when filtered through my techno-geek ears, sounded like a theological statement. He said, “Let’s just do the fresh install. If we try to revive what’s there now and there was corruption, wouldn’t that just continue to be a problem and bring it down again?” From a technical point of view, he was right and it makes sense to start from scratch. It was the theological parallel that I liked.
When you accept Christ, it’s not a process that patches up your life. He doesn’t come in and rearrange some furniture and put a new coat of paint on your existence. He does something a little more radical than that:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
This is not your old life with some upgrades and patchwork. No, He started over. He made you new from the ground up. Now, of course, your house is in the same neighborhood, so you’ll remember what happened before and what kind of trouble you could get into. But, the life you’re living is that of a new creation.
Just like the laptop, He couldn’t re-create you starting with your broken nature, it would simply continue to corrupt. He had start clean with you so you would stay clean. He had to make sure sin was removed.
You are a fresh install.