Verse of the Day for April 1

April opens on the most quoted verse about starting again, and it is usually read as a description of how somebody feels. It is not. It is a statement about status.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The tense is done. Passed away, become new — both completed. Paul is not describing a process he hopes will start; he is reporting something that has already happened to a person who may not feel any different this morning.

And the verse before it explains what changed: henceforth know we no man after the flesh. He is talking about how people are now to be assessed.

That includes you. The old assessment — the history, the reputation, the private list of what you have been — is the thing declared out of date.

Behold is an instruction to look. Not to feel, not to summon anything. To look at what is already true.

Most people wait to feel new before they will believe they are. The verse works the other way round.

The old assessment is out of date. Stop consulting it.