We love to recycle. Take something old, smash it into a new shape, throw in a little heat, and it comes out fresh and new.
Some recycling is simple. We want to be married in Grandmother’s old wedding dress. It’s dated and out of style, so we snip and tuck, add a few pearls and maybe a bit of lace, and that old dress is fresh with new style. Recycled. Ready to be used once more in a brand new wedding.
It’s still Grandmother’s dress, however. We haven’t changed that. We’ve only made it look and feel different.
Copper is the ultimate recyclable. We can reuse it over and over with no degradation in its physical properties. When we throw it into the furnace, it literally becomes new once again, just like it was when it was pulled from the ground. Recycle it a hundred times, and we can’t discern the recycled copper from that which is brand new.
How about us? Can we be recycled? And if we can, does it simply pretty us up, giving us an updated look, or do we become completely new, as if we’d never been used before?
John 1:21 shows us Jesus being asked this very question.
“And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’ ”
There’s a wedding coming for the Church, but Jesus isn’t our grandmother’s wedding dress, spiffed up for each new generation, looking fashionable, but needing to be updated every generation. He’s not the old Elijah.
He becomes brand new for each of us, each and every time we come unto him.
John 18:36 takes us to the copper threshold.
“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ ”
Christ didn’t come to the world to replace the old Elijah. He came as a new redeemer, one who would lift us above our sins and make us new in him.
Revelation 5:13 proclaims his power to do so.
“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ ”
Through Christ, we are the ultimate recyclable. He smashes us, sends us through the furnace, and we come out fresh and new.
We’re no longer the old Elijah. We have become brilliantly shining copper, a new Elijah ready and prepared to do wonderful things in the name of the one who sends us into the world.
When Jesus remakes us in his image, he completes the job, and there is nothing of the old man left anywhere inside.
Copyright © 2015 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 12-6-15 in Hope