HOW TO EXPERIENCE A NEW BEGINNING IN YOUR LIFE
Best-selling author Laura Hillenbrand, while researching for her book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, found a 1938 clip of a young running phenomenon named Louie Zamperini. She jotted his name down in her Seabiscuit research notebook.
Later, I came across Louie’s name again, and this time I learned a little about his wartime odyssey. I was very intrigued. [She discovered his address and wrote to him,] He wrote back, I called him, and I found myself in the most fascinating conversation of my life. He told me his story, and I was captivated.
So many elements of Louie’s saga were enthralling, but one in particular hooked me. He told me of having experienced almost unimaginable abuse at the hands of his captors, yet spoke without self-pity or bitterness. In fact, he was cheerful, speaking with perfect equanimity. When he finished his story, I had one question: How can you tell of being victimized by such monstrous men, yet not express rage? His response was simple: Because I forgave them. How did Louie, deal with the abuse that happened to him in WWII? Like many war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Louie drank heavily, his marriage was in disarray, and his tortured thoughts were to find and kill the most abusive guard during his incarceration in a Japanese prison camp. But Louie found himself at a Billy Graham crusade, in Los Angeles in 1949. It was there that he found God reached out to him and transformed his life. As Laura Hillenbrand writes: In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation, and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation. Softly, he wept.[i]
To begin anew in our lives, we need to begin to assess life differently. Here in our text from 2 Corinthians, we will discover three things that we must do to experience a new beginning in our life. How can we experience God’s incredible grace for our lives?
THE FIRST THING WE MUST DO IS NOT TO REGARD OTHERS FROM A WORLDLY POINT OF VIEW
Almost without thought, people make judgments upon others simply based on worldly evaluations such as dress, speech, age, social standing, and race. Discrimination is expressed in social snubs, rude remarks, and loss opportunities, but Paul warns against such an approach in relationship to others.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.[ii]
Saul the Pharisee, who later became Paul, the missionary, thought of Jesus as a false Messiah and a threat to Judaism. Saul was so adamant in his rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, that he was one of the foremost antagonist and persecutors of the early church. It was Saul who testified against Stephen, the church’s first martyr. He was the primary witness who spoke against him.
When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of their killing him.[iii]
Kent Hughes writes regarding Paul’s assessment of Jesus:
To him Jesus was a messianic pretender who pushed too far and got what was coming to him when he was condemned by the Sanhedrin and crucified by the Romans. In fact, Jesus’ crucifixion proved to Paul that Jesus was cursed by God because the Law in Deuteronomy 21:23 categorically states that ‘a hanged man is cursed by God’ (cf. Galatians 3:13). Jesus’ suffering on the cross was therefore an emphatic and deserved rejection of Jesus’ messianic pretensions.
The personal irony now for Paul in Corinth is that he himself had come to suffer the same disregard and rejection by some in the Corinthian church. They observed that he was weak in appearance and speech—and he was. But more, Paul’s perpetual suffering (as he described it: ‘afflicted in every way … perplexed … persecuted … struck down,’ 4:8; cf. 11:23ff.) plus his daily dying proved to them that he was a phony. This was bitter irony: Jesus had been despised and rejected by Paul through fleshly regard, and now Paul himself suffered from the same fleshly evaluation and rejection.[iv]
Paul’s statement in 5:16a most likely refers back to the practice of his opponents, who continue to criticize Paul’s ministry because of its lack of worldly status due to his suffering and apparent lack of spiritual power (cf. 10:1–6, 10). Paul understands this way of thinking, since he himself ‘once regarded Christ in this way’ (i.e., ‘according to the flesh’). Apart from the resurrection, Jesus’ death on the cross could only mean that he had been cursed by God for his own sin (cf. Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). So prior to Paul’s conversion, in which the glory of the resurrected Christ made it clear to Paul that Jesus had died not for his own sins but for the sins of his people (cf. 4:6; 5:14, 21), Paul disdained the cross as a radical contradiction to Jesus’ messianic claims and as a rejection of Israel’s nationalistic hopes.[v]
However, all that changed on Saul’s journey to Damascus to arrest and punish followers of Jesus who fled Jerusalem. Jesus was not just crucified, but now alive because of the resurrection and appears to him. As he was traveling, Saul was arrested regarding his intentions and was blinded. Luke describes this amazing encounter that transformed Saul’s life.
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.[vi]
Most people do not have such a dramatic conversion, but Saul could have only been convinced through this kind of power encounter. He realized that his understanding of who God is and the nature of the Messiah needed a major overhaul and that is exactly what happened. He moved from a self-righteous Pharisee to a humbled follower of Jesus. He moved from being proud of his heritage, learning, and status in the Jewish faith to the greatest proponent of bringing the gospel to the Gentile (non-Jewish) world undergoing the greatest persecution and difficulty in fulfilling his mission. Listen to how he now sees himself in light of Christ, moving away from his past worldly point of view.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.[vii]
THE SECOND THING WE MUST DO IS ACCEPT GOD’S WORK OF RECONCILATION THROUGH CHRIST
For some, the hardest thing to accept is that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Though, like Paul, we have much going for ourselves from a worldly perspective, we realize, like Paul, that it means nothing in relationship to God.
- Reconciliation is what God provides for us.
The idea that we need God to save us attacks our pride and ego, but we need to realize that only God can deliverance us from the power and penalty of sin.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [viii]
Kent Hughes reminds us of this amazing truth. We don’t reconcile ourselves to God, rather it is God doing something we are incapable of doing so that we can be reconciled to God. That is why the gospel, which means ‘good news’, is so critical for our world. The message of Jesus Christ is the only hope for our world.
We must not miss the thrust of his passionate plea because it is not ‘reconcile yourselves to God’ but ‘be reconciled’ (passive)—that is, be reconciled by God. Receive God’s offer of reconciliation! This is a passionate offer of peace because peace with God is the result of reconciliation. The atoning, substitutionary death of Christ brings reconciliation and peace with God (cf. Romans 5:1–11). Beautifully, the promise of this peace was made long ago by the prophet Isaiah: ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed’ (53:5). The gospel is not ‘reconcile yourselves.’ The gospel is ‘be reconciled.’ Receive reconciliation from God.[ix]
In Nicky Gumbel’s devotional reading for 2026, he reminds us of this amazing truth. Quoting John Stott, in his book The Cross of Christ, was reflecting on suffering of the cross, wrote
‘I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross…in the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?’[x]
We see the reality of this acceptance by what happens at the moment of Jesus’ death: ‘the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom’ (Mt. 27:51). The symbolism of that is explained in the book of Hebrews. The curtain separated the people from the ‘Most Holy Place’—that is the presence of God (Hebrews 9:3). Now through Jesus, you can experience God’s presence and an intimate friendship with him. Even the detail that the curtain was torn from the top to the bottom reminds us that it was the work of God, and not of humans, that enabled our acceptance into God’s presence.[xi]
It was God who made a way into His presence. One of the factors that brought many priests to believe in Jesus as their Messiah was this phenomena that the curtain was torn from the top to the bottom. The curtain in the temple at this time was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide, four inches thick and it was so heavy that it required 300 priests to handle it. It was designed to be an impassable barrier between the holy place and the holy of holies.
So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.[xii]
- What does it mean, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”?
We need to remember what the fall did to the image of God in the lives of Adam and Eve. They were afraid of God, and so they covered their nakedness experiencing shame for the first time. Then when God confronted them on their disobedience, they resorted to blaming rather than taking personal responsibility. Sin distorts God’s image in our lives, but when we are reconciled to God, that image is restored. Scott Hafemann describes what this transformation is all about.
As the ‘second Adam’ reflecting the image of God, Christ brings his followers back to the glory associated with Adam before his fall into disobedience. Thus, for Paul, the real evidence of the glory of the new creation is not spiritual ecstasy (5:13), but moral transformation (5:17; cf. Eph. 2:10).[xiii]
Linda Belleville challenges the world point of view.
A better way of looking at things has come. The tense is perfect (gegonen)—a new set of standards and attitudes ‘has come to stay’ (M. J. Harris 1976:353) so that a person is now to be judged in a completely new light. Paul has in mind specifically the person in Christ. This is a favorite phrase of his that more often than not means “to belong to Christ.[xiv]
- How does this reconciliation come about?
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.[xv]
Scott Hafemann explains the power of this text as referring to the sacrificial system which allows God to address sin and sinner, while allowing His grace and mercy to be given without diminishing his justice.
The explicit link between the Old Testament sacrificial system and the death of Christ is found in the fact that Jesus, as the suffering servant of Isaiah 52:13–53:12, bears the sins of God’s people as their ransom (cf. Mark 8:36–37; 10:45; 14:24 against the backdrop of Isa. 43:1–4; 53:4–8, 10–12). Paul’s reference to Christ as the One who ‘had no sin’ (lit., ‘did not know sin’), whom God nevertheless ‘made … to be sin,’ thus recalls the death of the ‘righteous servant’ who did not sin in Isaiah 53:9, 11. So, without a doubt, ‘it is to be inferred that the efficacy of his death arises from the sinlessness of his life.’
Only when Christ’s death as the sinless one is seen as an atoning sacrifice for our sin does it become clear why God is able not to count his people’s sins against them without compromising his own integrity and justice (cf. Rom. 3:21–26). As a result of Christ’s death, not only does Christ take on our sin, we take on his righteousness. When God sees us in Christ, he sees the perfection of Christ having already been granted to us as a gift—even though our being made perfect in Christ is still to come at the consummation of the age, when we will see Christ face to face (cf. 3:18).[xvi]
What Scott is saying is that Jesus’ substitutionary death is an acceptable sacrifice for our sins because of His sinless life. God is able to address the injustice that sin created, and God can then show us forgiveness and mercy as a result, but even more than that, God now sees Christ in us, in right standing with Himself. This picture of what transpires when we receive Christ is that something powerful changes in us and before God’s eyes.
The Chinese character for ‘righteousness’ is most interesting. It is composed of two separate characters—one standing for a lamb, the other for me. When ‘lamb’ is placed directly above ‘me,’ a new character—’righteousness’ is formed.
This is a helpful picture of the grace of God. Between me, the sinner, and God, the Holy One, there is interposed by faith the Lamb of God. By virtue of his sacrifice, he has received me on the ground of faith, and I have become righteous in his sight.[xvii]
THE THIRD THING WE MUST DO IS BECOME AN AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST TO OUR WORLD
As wonderful as being reconciled to God is, with this amazing privilege comes an incredible opportunity and responsibility. We now become ambassadors or messengers of God’s incredible gospel. We have been given the ministry which is a message of reconciliation.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.[xviii]
Kent Hughes explains Paul’s usage of ambassador to explain his ministry, and the ministry of every believer who is communicating God’s message of reconciliation to others.
Here the Apostle Paul (having been entrusted with the ministry and message of reconciliation) employs a bold analogy to describe his ministry, that of the ancient ambassador, an imperial legate in the Roman Empire, a man of immense authority. As such, he did not speak in his own name or act on his own authority. Nor did his message originate in him, but from above. He stood in his Sovereign’s stead and authority. So the actual truth was that as Paul spoke, God spoke. The ambassador analogy was not chosen because it approximated Paul’s authority, but because it was reality. God really did make his appeal through him.[xix]
We need to understand that the moment we are converted, we are called to communicate the message that changed our lives. That was certainly true for Paul, who having encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, is told what he must do.
‘…I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’[xx]
- The message of reconciliation.
We need to faithfully communicate God’s message and not a distorted version of it. We don’t change the message to make it more palatable for others. A distortion of God’s message diminishes its power and efficacy, which is its effectiveness to change our lives. Kent Hughes explains the actual message of reconciliation, which is to accept God’s peace treaty.
Clearly then, reconciliation is not something we do—it is something God has accomplished. The ministry of reconciliation is not telling people to make peace with God, but telling them that God has made peace with the world. ‘At bottom, the gospel is not good advice, but good news’ (Denney)—’that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.’[xxi]
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.[xxii]
Transformation is what happens when we encounter God.
While dying of thirst on a raft in the South Pacific, Louie Zamperini uttered a whisper from swollen lips, If you will save me, I will serve you forever. And then, standing under a circus tent on a clear night in downtown Los Angeles, Louie felt rain failing. It was the last flashback he would ever have. Louie let go of Cynthia and turned to Graham. He felt supremely alive. He began walking. ‘This is it,’ said Graham. ‘God has spoken to you. You come on.’ …When they entered the apartment, Louie went straight to his cache of liquor. It was the time of night when the need usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, Louie had no desire to drink. He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them, and poured their contents into the drain. Then he hurried through the apartment, gathering packs of cigarettes, a secret stash of girlie magazines, everything that was part of his ruined years. He heaved it all down the trash chute.[xxiii]
In 1950, Zamperini went to Japan, to Sugamo Prison of War camp, where many of his captors were in attendance. When told that his most abusive guard, had committed suicide,
Louie felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini the war was over. Before Louie left Sugamo, the colonel who was attending him asked Louie’s former guards to come forward. In the back of the room, the prisoners stood up and shuffled into the aisle. They moved hesitantly, looking up at Louie with small faces. Louie was seized by childlike, giddy exuberance. Before he realized what he was doing, he was bounding down the aisle. In bewilderment, the men who had abused him watched him come to them, his hands extended, a radiant smile on his face.[xxiv]
How do we hit the reset button to our lives? What does it take to see a new beginning and transformation happen in our lives? We must stop evaluating life through our world’s lens. We need to accept the gift that God is offering to us in Christ. We can be reconciled to God by simply accepting the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, which is an admission on our part that we have sinned against God and are prepared to turn our backs on the life we once knew. When we experience God’s grace, there comes with it a new purpose in our lives. We now have a message of reconciliation to share with those around us.
https://www.youtube.com/live/I8fCLtQBraY?si=PB8XU6hSyCORXqqi
[i] Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, (New York, Random House, 2014), 487-88, 383.
[ii] 2 Corinthians 5:16, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[iii] Acts 7:54-8:1.
[iv] Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness, (Crossway Books, 2006), 117.
[v] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, (Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 242.
[vi] Acts 9:1-9.
[vii] Philippians 3:4b-9.
[viii] 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, 21.
[ix] Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness, 125.
[x] John Stott, The Cross of Christ, (InterVarsity Press, 2012), back jacket.
[xi] Nicky Gumble, The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, 2026, February 13.
[xii] Acts 7:7.
[xiii] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, 244.
[xiv] Linda Belleville, 2 Corinthians, TheIVP New Testament Commentary Series, Vol. 8, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 2 Cor. 5:14-17.
[xv] 2 Corinthians 5:21.
[xvi] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, 248.
[xvii] Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Book House, 1989), 307.
[xviii] 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.
[xix] Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness, 124-25.
[xx] Acts 9:5-6, 15-16.
[xxi] Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness, 124.
[xxii] Romans 5:10-11.
[xxiii] Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, 382-83.
[xxiv] Ibid, 386-87.
