How do you become a Christian? You become a Christian first by becoming a blank. How do you become a Christian? You become a Christian by becoming a fool. How do you become a Christian? You become a Christian by becoming nothing.
You come to the doorsteps of the church with bags in your hands, your religion or your anti-religion, and the gospel tells you: Leave them all outside. They're of no value here. They're a hindrance, they're an obstacle, they're a nuisance. Why? Because the great message [of Christianity] is 'a new creation.'
What's that? A new creation is not an addition to what you have already--that's not a creation, that's an addition. Creation means making something out of nothing. That's how God made the world. It isn't creation if there was anything there. Creation is producing something out of nothing, nothing at all. And the New Testament way of describing the Christian is that he is a new creation.
--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "What Is Christianity? Part 2" (podcast available at oneplace.com)
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