We are at the day and time of year when people make their “New Year’s Resolutions”.  Folks will resolve to eat less, stop smoking tobacco, stop drinking alcohol, stop hating the neighbor’s dog, etc.  People typically follow the concept that they will drop some bad habit or practice every year when a ball of lights drops down in New York City.  Most fail, but they act as though they are trying to accomplish a noble deed.

     I can see many ironic things about this practice of “New Year’s Resolutions”.  For one, you have people who spend 365 days in the previous calendar year doing many, many, many, many, many … (you see the point) horrible things.  They then think they’re going to be a better person because they promise* to stop doing one bad thing (*promise does not constitute actual success, especially when it is too often made while getting drunk).

     I wonder most why it is that people are more willing to at least speak towards change because of a new calendar year, than they are willing to think about change in response to our Savior’s death that all could be saved.  Do people see a new year as something more significant than the death of the only begotten Son of God?  Actions, such as this practice of the “New Year’s Resolution”, suggests that people are more willing to do what is customary than what is right.  Tell a smoker of tobacco they should change because of Jesus and they’ll get angry.  Ask that same person to try to make it their “New Year’s Resolution” to stop smoking tobacco and they might just commend you for a good idea.  Isn’t Jesus reason enough to change?

     Of all men that ever did or would walk the face of the earth Jesus is the only one who could die and through His death bring the opportunity of salvation to all mankind (Romans 5:10-17; cf. Hebrews 10:1-19).  Christ first showed His love for us through His action of giving Himself as a sacrifice for our transgressions (Galatians 2:20).  Jesus made Himself the source of salvation to all those who would obey Him (Hebrews 5:8-9).  Who in all of our existence has ever come near to doing all that Jesus has done for us?  Yet, for a day on the calendar we are more willing to make changes in our lives than for the Savior Jesus Christ?

     We are asking why some will not give up sin for the Lord, but why not consider how much Jesus gave up so that we could have the greater?  The obvious, He gave His life (I Thessalonians 5:9-10).  He gave up Heaven, for a period of time, to live on the earth that is far beneath the grander of the presence of the Father (Acts 7:48-49 and Hebrews 1:13).  Paul said: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (II Corinthians 8:9).  How much more should need to be said?  Why won’t we make the appropriate changes in our lives to please Him who loves us most?  After all, we are the ones who will gain the most in changing for the sake of Jesus!

     If you are wrong in the sight of God there is certainly great motivation to change.  The word of God shows us that we will reap what we sow: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).  In words common in the farming industry, we are taught a very valuable lesson.  We shall harvest that which we plant.  If we live a sinful life, we should expect to receive due punishment (Romans 6:23).  If we live a faithful life unto the Lord, we can expect to be rewarded (Revelation 2:10).  The positive factor that should motivate us is that we can have eternity in Heaven with the Lord if we do His will (II Corinthians 5:10; cf. John 14:1-3).  The negative motivator is eternal punishment unto those who do not obey the Lord (Matthew 25:46, John 5:28-29, and Revelation 21:8).

     Some however find more interest in changing for humor sake than for the benefit of their own soul.  It seems too many are assuming that sin will go unpunished.  Again, man is wrong in this estimation: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.  Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to All the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.  Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?  When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.  Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God…  Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Ezekiel 18:20; 23-26; 30-32).

     Still, even with all we have considered, many do not take sin seriously.  People like to think that sinful pleasures are just a part of what is expected in life.  Watch the New Year’s Eve parties and you see the vast majority of them revolve around sex, alcohol, and dancing.  The majority of practices the day before the New Year begins revolve around satisfying desires of the flesh.  Oh, but the next day many will promise to change their ways.  That is until the next reason they have to throw a party!  We need to realize that the punishment of sin is real and not to be taken lightly.

     Let’s use an example to see how real God’s promise of punishment is.  The Lord commanded under the Law of Moses (no longer binding today) for no one to work on the Sabbath Day, but to make it a day of rest (Deuteronomy 5:12-14).  Some today would regulate such instructions and challenge God on how strict He would bind that law.  Some would say you would be a legalist if you kept that law to the letter.  However, sin is transgression of the law (I John 3:4).  Any violation, whether small or great, is wrong even if you do almost everything else right (James 2:10).  Notice how strict God was on this command: “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.  And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.  And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.  And The Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp” (Numbers 15:32-35).  God punishes sinners, even if it is only sticks!  Is sin worth having the wrath of God upon you?

     Today is the first day of the New Year.  It may also be the last day of your life.  Tomorrow may rise or it may not (Proverbs 27:1 and James 4:13-14).  Don’t let today be the first day of the new you because it is the first of January.  Allow today to be the first day of the new you because Jesus died that you might be made new in Him.  In conclusion, if you are not changed in the way the pleases God allow today to be the first of many wherein you put aside the old you for Him that loves you: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:14-17).