New Years Resolution Worth Keeping

According to one source, the tradition of the New Year’s Resolution goes all the way back to 153 BC when Janus, (a mythical, two-faced king of early Rome), was placed at the head of the calendar. One of his faces looked backwards into the past year, prompting the people to give gifts to others as restitution for their mistakes. The other face looked forward to the next year and it represented new beginnings.

It’s amazing how sometimes we mirror this ancient culture. In December we give presents, sometimes with the hope of rebuilding relationships, and in January we set out to make a new beginning by developing a New Year’s Resolution. We promise to ourselves that this year will be different, that this year we are going to kick that unhealthy habit. This year we will stop smoking, stop drinking soda, stop eating junk food, stop mistreating our family, stop spending so much money; this year we will stop….

Many times Christians do a similar thing; they use the New Year to dedicate themselves to a new, heightened life of holiness. We get caught up in thinking that the Jesus looking back into last year may be disappointed in me, but the Jesus looking forward into this year is going to be very proud of me, because this year I am going to stop this or that sin. Unfortunately, this is mistaking Jesus for Janus.

Simply put, the Janus type of “repentance” (A New Years Resolution) is turning away from a “bad habit”, which God calls “sin”. While this seems noble and appealing, it is counterfeit repentance because it is incomplete. Many of us are tricked into believing that the Christian life follows this model of merely trying not to sin. We focus our eyes on “the line” of morality, we toe up to it, trying not to cross over it, and we stand paralyzed, hoping we don’t disappoint God again. Unfortunately this is how many, if not most, Christians live their lives, including me sometimes. Let me ask you, is this how you live your Christian life? Just trying not to mess up? Consumed with trying to be righteous? If so, real repentance is absolutely liberating!

The Biblical form of repentance is much different because it is complete. Christian repentance is two-fold. The first part is similar to the Janus tradition, which is turning away from sin. However, the second part is exclusively Christian, it is turning toward God. In Galatians 5:16, Paul is confronting the sin of the Galatians when he gives us a hint of how liberating true repentance can be. Reading closely we see a command: “live by the Spirit,” followed by a promise: “and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” In other words, don’t put a target on your sins and don’t focus on “the line” of morality, rather turn your body around and pursue God. Don’t be consumed with righteousness but rather be consumed by God and the unyielding control of His Holy Spirit. He is the only hope we have to conquer the “desires of the sinful nature” (Gal 5:19-21) and bear “fruit” (Gal 5:22-23)

So if you make a New Year’s Resolution, please don’t vow to stop doing something, but rather resolve to be a God-chaser by yielding to the Holy Spirit as made possible to you by the blood of Jesus. Furthermore, renew this resolution every morning, because it is in this full repentance we find real freedom from the power of sin, enabling us to turn and run freely toward the real King, Jesus Christ.