There are lots of powerful words! But when it comes to marketing there are two that have been proven to be the most powerfully appealing. You have any idea what they are? I think the coolest thing is that they both apply to the gospel – Jesus’ life-giving, life-changing message. I’ll give you the first one. FREE! Think about all the offers that come in the mail – free trial, free sample, free subscription. The word alone pops and grabs your attention.
Five times in Romans 5:15-17, the words “free gift” are used to speak of our salvation that was brought to us by the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Revelation 22:17 speaks of the water of life. God unashamedly markets it with the terms “free gift” to all who are thirsty. Good stuff ehh? I told you! Now, you have any idea what the second most powerful marketing word is? Think!
It’s NEW! That’s right. It’s an extremely powerful adjective. The words idea, model, design, fashion, technology are all powerful, but not nearly so much as when you put the word NEW in front of them. Take the word creation for example. Powerful word. Wouldn’t you agree? Theologically and cosmologically, it signifies the act of someone bigger than myself, who with purpose and design, made me and you and everyone and everything else around us. That’s good stuff! But wait! It becomes exponentially more powerful and eternally altering when you put the word new in front of it. NEW creation. You know – the stuff of “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Jesus is the beginning of God’s new creation – the prototype of a whole new race of men of which, you as a blood bought believer, is a part. Scripture refers to Him as the “firstborn.” (among many brothers – Rom. 8:29; from the dead – Col. 1:18). Paul said that nothing else matters except the new creation. “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” (Galatians 6:15). In other words, natural heritage of Jewishness doesn’t give you a special status, nor does your Gentileness make you any longer a dog. All of that has been swallowed up in the new creation. Paul nails the coffin shut on that foolishness in the very next verse by showing that the new creation IS the “Israel of God.” Shhh! Don’t wake the Zionists – they haven’t figured that out yet and are still trying to resurrect the “old creation.”
God’s purposes are wrapped up in you – His NEW CREATION. Ok, one last thought – it has already gotten way longer than I intended. This is one thing that I’m so excited about in 2010 – and that is writing more and more the things that I’m hearing and seeing in God’s amazing Word. Think about this as the NEW year approaches. Revelation 21:5 says, “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new!’” Wow! Don’t miss it! This whole thing is in process. What God fully completed and demonstrated in Jesus Christ, the firstborn, the first fruits of the resurrection, (1 Corinthians 15) He intends to do in you and in all the whole created order. He’s making all things new! You missed it! Let me show you. He didn’t say he was making all new things. . . . . . He’s making all things new! There’s a world of difference in the two sentences. God is deliberate. What He has reconciled, He is renovating, renewing, restoring and rebuilding – something altogether different, wonderful, new!
He, who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion – He will finish it! He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ! (Philippians 1:6) There are literally 6 whole messages in what I just laid out here. Some of you have been going through a hard process in 2009. That year is ending. A new one is in front of us. The seeds of 2009 will become the harvest of 2010. The decisions you made this year will come to fruition in the New Year! Look with eyes of faith! God is doing a new thing!
Re-VISION: the power of seeing things anew 