Just Drive the New Car!
- Pastor Jay Christianson
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB)
“…take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Please believe me that I’m not picking on the person who inspired this piece. (Well, maybe just a bit.)
I know a woman who has a tough time letting go of things. Things that are associated with the past, especially very familiar things, are precious to her. She doesn’t handle change well. I’ve tried over the years to encourage her to let go of material possessions that only lead to unbelievable clutter and make cleaning her house impossible. She admits that the very thought of initiating such a task is overwhelming, and she shuts down. Perhaps you know someone like this?
This woman recently bought herself a brand-spankin’ new car. It was about time, given that her old vehicle is, well, old, and it’s certainly showing its age. The car body has developed rust that has slowly spread across the roof and body panels. Not the car-consuming, salt-on-the-road rust leprosy. It’s more like a metallic rash. The interior also shows extreme wear, the car’s mechanisms are giving out, and functionality is declining. Believe me, I rejoiced with her when she told me she bought the new car. (And the angels sang!)
But she didn’t trade in her old vehicle.
After a few months, someone asked her if she was enjoying her new ride. This woman replied that she hadn’t driven it yet. What? After two months, she hadn’t wallowed in the delight of her gleaming new chariot? How was she getting around? She told the other woman that she was driving her old car and was hesitant to hop in the new ride for a number of reasons. One of which was that the new vehicle was unfamiliar to her. Furthermore, she was very comfortable with the old, worn-out, decaying car.
I surmise there are a few other issues with which she’s struggling. For example, when I was going to drive my Dad’s new car from Florida to Minnesota for the first time, he handed me what I could only assume was a new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (which is a meaningless reference to all but Baby Boomers). Okay, it was like a big, fat tech manual for a supercomputer. This massive missive was his car’s owner’s manual. I was stunned and turned a bit rebellious. I knew how to drive a car. Why did I need to read a Master’s degree-level textbook on vehicular operation? Well, I perused it and found it difficult, time-consuming, and complicated to understand in parts, but extremely necessary. I’m pretty sure that delving into an extensive manual with tons of new information is another reason why this woman hasn’t driven her new car.
Another reason is related to the familiarity issue. Change is challenging for her and causes her anxiety. Therefore, “Hold off on the new car. Stay with the old car.”
There’s a powerful lesson in this for some new Christians, and even some experienced ones.
Before a person is born again, they live according to a fallen nature. It’s like driving around in a worn-out, dysfunctional, prone-to-breakdowns rust-bucket. Paul refers to those who live with the fallen nature in this manner. “They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more” (Ephesians 4:18-19).
Paul describes what the fallen, old sin nature produces as “works of the flesh.” “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
But if you’re born again, the Lord has reached down inside you through His Holy Spirit and created a new nature, just like the one humanity had before the Fall, a nature that can know the Lord, respond to Him, and obey Him despite a mind and body that are used to doing things the “old way.” That battle between our old habits and the leading of our new nature is how we’re being made to look more like Jesus as we turn our backs on the old us and embrace the new us.
Back to the car illustration. The old car represents our old, ingrained, sinful habits. The new car is the new us, ready to roll down life’s highway. We’re now free to experience a level of performance and vehicular operation that was previously unimaginable. So why do we hold on to the “old us” while the “new us” is so much better?
Familiarity. Comfort. Fear of change. Anxiety over letting go of the past and our old ways and habits. The effort required to learn the new vehicle’s ways. The intimidation we experience when we’re faced with the new owner’s manual (the Bible). I understand completely. I’ve been there and still wrestle with the process.
Now, I’m going to get a little disgusting. With the old car, this woman would toss old fast food bags and wrappers into the back seat, and by that, I mean piles of paper. The back seat became her garbage can. The refuse was even piled up on the passenger side floor. I dreaded riding with her.
So many unsaved people are like this. Rather than getting rid of the garbage in their lives, it’s thrown aside but never eliminated. Frankly, I don’t like to ride with people like that. Rather than the new car smell of a transformed life, I have to endure the rank odor of hypocrisy. Furthermore, the new car reminds us to keep it clean consistently, so it doesn’t end up looking and smelling like the old car. That’s a chore to some Christians, so they revert to “driving the old car,” that is, living like they used to, even though Jesus has given them a totally new life.
Again, Paul gives us guidance about this. “Take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24, italics author).
Okay, Paul. How does that work? “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.” (Colossians 3:5-10).
If our old rusty nature has been replaced, why do we insist on living as if it weren’t, when the new nature with a new life is parked on the driveway of our lives? I know that, as I described the woman’s situation at the beginning of this piece, you were thinking, “How bizarre. Why would anyone do that?” Well, I can say the same to any Christian (even myself) who lives according to their old nature that’s been done away with, especially when we have a new nature with a comprehensive owner’s manual and the Divine Designer in the front seat with us.
Get my point?
Forget the old car. Just drive the new car.
Enjoy the ride!
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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts