Commentary 2 Cor 4:11-20

No matter who you are, we will all be there on the day of judgment. If someone says to you that they have been earning their way into heaven, or believe that some of the things they have done will cause God to see them as righteous, they are wrong and if we fear the Lord as in having a reverence for him greater than anything we can possibly imagine, we ought to be able to express this one thought to such a person. This comes in when we share our faith with anyone. The truth is we are all, every one of us a foul smell to God by our own standards. The bible says all of us have become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. If someone believes they will be innocent on the day of judgment because of any act they have done, or are even proud in the least of what they feel they have accomplished that person is sadly mistaken. You see, the only real act we can boast about in that God reconciled himself to us. What we can be happy about is only that we are in Christ. Because in Him we have become a new creation. Since we are made new, we will naturally be different. Our old will pass away, and our new will begin to unfold. Imagine taking a red ink pen, taking out the ink tube, and replacing it with a black ink tube. Or instead taking a red ink pen and dipping it in black ink to write black until the ink wears out and red begins to come out of it. When the writer holds the first pen he will know it was once red and now has become black. When the writer hold the second pen he will know it is a red pen that has dipped itself in black ink. The writer will then put the black ink pen where it goes, and the red one in it's place. When we are made a new creation in Christ we are filled with new ink and we will not write as we did before, and Since Christ is no longer with us in flesh this transformation is our only witness to knowing him in spirit. This is were I believe our assurance lies. This is were we can have tangible proof in our hearts we have been made a new creation.