When the Old Is Made New
Now I would remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.* (1Cor 15:1-2)
Do you like being reminded?
It depends, doesn’t it? I would say that, in general, I… don’t.
Of course, later on I might wish that I had been reminded. But generally, we don’t want to be reminded. Generally, we want to be entertained, we want novelty!
But there are things we’ll wish someone had reminded us of.
We have a complicated relationship with reminders. We need them—we’re not great at remembering. We resent them—we all think we're great at remembering. Sometimes a reminder can feel like a judgment and make us feel foolish. Sometimes reminders can feel like salvation and relief.
Do we like being reminded? It depends.
Paul is aware of this. You can hear it in his little, apologetic, throat-clearing introduction, “Now…” It’s like, “I’m going to talk now about something that you probably already know and so you might be somewhat bothered by this. But I want you to know that I know how you’ll feel. Nonetheless, it’s important enough that I will risk a reminder.”
“Now I would remind you of the Gospel…”
Two things happen in my mind when someone reminds me of Gospel-truths. The first is that I try to brush it away—“Yeah, yeah,” I say to myself. The second is that, hang on, I realize that this reminder of the Gospel is precisely the fresh perspective that I need.
In other words, for me, reminders of the Gospel are always new information. I know the words, sure. But I don’t know them in this situation, today, or from this person, with their whole story behind it. And these always put it in a new light.
The Spirit does something miraculous when we are reminded of the Gospel—the Spirit makes it new. Something old and known becomes like a new discovery. This is a grace.
“Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” – Proverbs 19:27
Sometimes the Christian life can seem like running a marathon on a jogging track—round and round we go. “I’ve heard this all before… I’ve tried this already…”
But spiritual growth is when we trust the old truths and the tried paths to carry us to new vistas. Spiritual growth is when we round the bend, again, and are suddenly stopped by the beauty of where we have come to. Sure, we ran through these woods a hundred times already, but hang on, wow, I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before. It’s so beautiful.
The only way to get there, to stand… where you’ve been… for the first time, is to embrace the journey of reminders.
So when you feel yourself clamping up as someone spouts well-worn truths about Jesus to you, try to relax and receive the reminder. Perhaps today you’ll see something… new.
And when you feel yourself shying away from sharing some well-worn truths with someone who clearly knows them already, please take that step and remind them. Perhaps this time that truth will snap into place and suddenly become… new.
Knowing that this does happen is why we gladly embrace the disciplines of the rhythms of the Christian life—daily Bible reading, daily prayer, and weekly fellowship, study, worship.
Round and round the track we run together… just so we will be there when first light cracks between the mountains and all the grace suddenly becomes clear.
And the old is made new.
Photo by Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash