A New Creature with New Ambition

SLIDE

Years ago, back when Annette and I were hippies and went to three-day outdoor music festivals a couple of times a year, we had one of the craziest experiences of my life.

By this time, we were experienced campers. In fact, camping USED to be our favorite vacation before Annette grew tired of doing all the work.

We had a great set-up. A big tent with a couple of rooms. Cooking equipment. A portable kitchen. Even a blow-up couch and a shower stall with a sun shower.

Now, this was when I was in my late 30s. Annette, of course, was much older than that. But even I was a bit older than many of the folks who were following these bands around the country.

And our combined camping experience meant that we were prepared for most anything.

So, at one particular festival, which was held near Haymarket, Va., one August weekend, when the inevitable summer storms hit, we were prepared.

Our tent was solidly staked down. We were able to quickly move the couch and chairs into the main room of the tent. And I was able to put everything else into the truck.

All we had to worry about was not touching the sides of the tent and causing water to leak inside.

But the wind from this storm was TERRIBLE. As I was putting the last things into the truck, I looked behind our tent just in time to see two other tents lifted into the air and flying a hundred yards into the treetops.

I hurried into the tent and turned to zip it shut. And then, I saw our neighbors — a couple of young guys who were barely old enough to drive, much less be out on their own for the weekend. They were desperately trying to stake their tent into the wet ground.

I suppose they’d seen the other tents fly away with the wind, and they were rethinking their decision to simply pop their own tent up and start partying.

I could see them holding onto the corners as the wind tried to rip the flimsy little nylon structure out of their hands.

And then, without thinking about the possible dangers, I leapt from inside the comfort and safety of our own tent, through the storm and into the inside of their tent.

And for the next 15 minutes or so, I just laid there on the floor of their tent sprawled out in a spread eagle. I was calculating whether the floor of that tent would rip out if the wind decided to take the rest of it. Or whether I’d be taken away with the tent.

When the storm finally cleared, we stepped out of our tents and looked at the destruction all around us.

Coolers had been flipped over. Some tents had collapsed. Others had joined those first two in the trees. All around us were empty spaces where we’d seen campsites just a half hour earlier.

But those two tents were still standing. And once the ground had had some time to dry out, we noticed our neighbors hard at work, staking down their little tent.

Now, the Apostle Paul was a tentmaker by trade. That’s how he earned his keep while he was on his missionary trips. And so, it’s not surprising that he might use tents as a metaphor in his writing.

You might remember that he did so in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, which we’ll be studying today as we continue our series, “Time for Something New.”

While you are turning there, let me give you some context.

At the end of chapter 14, Paul tells the people of the church at Corinth that, even amidst the suffering and afflictions of life — even as they saw their own bodies falling apart — they should be encouraged that the God who had given them a new heart and a new Spirit was renewing them day by day.

In other words, God’s plan to make believers more like Jesus isn’t affected by our external afflictions. And it is this conforming us to the image of Jesus that is God’s purpose in salvation.

This is what brings Him glory — taking broken-down sinners and making them saints. Making us into something NEW.

Because the Creator of the universe came to live among us as a man and then to give Himself as a sacrifice for we who have rebelled against Him in our sins, now, we who follow Him in faith have received new hearts and a new Spirit.

We have been made into new creatures and given new names. We have new life in Him because of the New Covenant that God has made with mankind.

And we who have accepted the terms of that conditional covenant are subject to a new commandment.

Having been reconciled to God in Christ, we look forward to the day when, in heaven, we will learn a new song of praise to Jesus in heaven.

We look forward to the day when the New Jerusalem descends upon the earth. And we anticipate the day when the heavens and earth are made new by Him.

There are such wonderful promises of newness for followers of Christ in the New Testament.

And yet — we so often cling to the old. We so often turn back to the old.

We so often throw ourselves onto the floor of that old tent, absolutely refusing to give it up to the Holy Spirit, who comes in blowing where He wishes. We’re terrified, because we don’t know where He’s blowing us to.

We’d rather stay right here where we’re comfortable, thank you very much, than be blown away to literally God-only-knows-where by fully giving ourselves to Him and His plans for us.

Now, before we get into this passage, I’m going to admit to you right up front that I’ve gone a little beyond the context in the application I just gave you.

Paul is talking, at least in the beginning of chapter 5, about the temporary home we have in our fleshly bodies compared to the permanent home that awaits Christians in heaven.

But I see a shift in his thinking about midway through the chapter. And in a few minutes, I’m going to tell you why I think this shift suggests that Paul is talking about more than just our mortal lives versus our lives in heaven.

So, let’s pick up in verse 1 of chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5:1–4 NASB95

1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

Now, remember that Paul is using the tent as a metaphor here. The “earthly tent which is our house” refers to our mortal bodies.

And who among us hasn’t had the experience of feeling as if these tents are being torn down. For some of us, it feels as if they’re falling apart all around us.

But what Paul reminds followers of Jesus in verse 1 [SLIDE] is that these houses are temporary. What we have waiting for us in heaven as those who have placed their faith in Jesus is an eternal home that will never experience decay or death.

And in verse 2 [SLIDE], he says that, even as we experience the afflictions of life in our mortal bodies, we LONG for the day when we will put off these bodies — these temporary homes — and put on our eternal home of heaven.

And it’s important to note that the phrase, “our dwelling from heaven,” suggests the longing isn’t just for the glorified bodies that we will receive when He returns on the clouds and all who have followed Him find their spirits united with their resurrected bodies.

What Paul is suggesting here — and what is confirmed in verse 6 — is that the moment we pass from this life, every Christian will be in heaven in the spirit.

Our souls are born to immortality. And so, upon our deaths, every one of us will enter either the place of eternal peace and joy in the presence of God or the place of eternal suffering and regret in the absence of His presence.

Now, I want to suggest to you that this passage is aspirational. In other words, I think Paul recognized some of his readers held onto THIS life as doggedly as I held onto that tent.

But what Paul knew — and what he wanted US to know — is that the years we live here on earth are not the most important part of our existence.

What’s most important [SLIDE] is LIFE. And you should recall by now that “life” in biblical terms is really “life the way it was meant to be, in fellowship with God and with Jesus through the Holy Spirit.”

We who follow Jesus in faith can have a glimpse of that kind of life by walking in the Spirit here in our mortal bodies. But the true experience of it will only come in heaven.

As he says in verse 7, we walk by faith, not by sight. But in heaven, we will see Jesus face to face.

But how can we be sure that what’s to come is really going to be what Paul says? Look at verse 5.

2 Corinthians 5:5–8 NASB95

5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

We can be sure, because God has given to each Christ-follower the Holy Spirit. He has given us the Spirit as a pledge — the word there can also mean engagement ring.

He who has given us this pledge, this down-payment on our eternal future, this ring as a promise, we can have courage to face whatever afflictions beset us in these broken-down tents. We can walk in faith in Him.

And as we come to understand how much better our heavenly home will be than our mortal lives, then we can truly appreciate the relative insignificance of all our earthly ambitions.

We can begin to let go of the tent we are trying so hard to protect and truly let God be in control of our lives here.

Our ambitions can be aimed toward things of eternal significance, rather than things that will fade away. Look at verse 9.

2 Corinthians 5:9–10 NASB95

9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Here’s where I see Paul’s thinking shift. He’s been talking about the promise of an eternal home in heaven for Christians. And he’s said this promise should give us courage here on earth, as we walk by faith in Jesus.

But notice the first word in verse 9. “Therefore.” In other words, BECAUSE of these things, something ought to happen within us.

What should happen?

We should have as our ambition — our desire should be — to be pleasing to God. And then, verse 10 describes the judgment seat of Christ, where He will reward Christians for doing the things that please Him.

Now, it’s important to note that the word translated as “bad” at the end of verse 10 actually means “worthless.”

And so, the idea here isn’t that we’ll be rewarded for being good and punished for being bad. For those who have placed their faith in Jesus, the punishment for ALL our sins — past, present, and future — was suffered by Jesus at the cross.

What’s in view at the judgment seat of Christ is rewards or loss of rewards. And the things for which we will be rewarded are things that are worthwhile, things that have eternal significance to the Kingdom of God.

If you have placed your faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, then the most important work you do here on earth will no longer be your job or your schoolwork or anything else that the world tells uses to define you.

That’s the gist of the next few verses. We don’t have time to look at them all, but Paul’s point in verses 11-16 is that the Christian’s position IN CHRIST compels him to live no longer for himself or herself but to live for JESUS.

Surely, that means to live a life of increasing sanctification and decreasing sin. But more even than that, it means that we set our ambitions toward doing the WORK that Jesus did, to be about the ministry of reconciliation that was His ministry here on earth.

And we are to be about that work, because we are new creatures. Look at verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB95

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Jesus’ followers have been given new hearts and a new Spirit so that we can BECOME new creatures. Your translation may read “a new creation.”

Either way, the idea is that we’ve been made new.

We’re not like the lost world that sees significance only in the 80 or so years most of us will have here and then responds by saying, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

WE know that these years are significant in the opportunity they give us to proclaim the good news of a Savior who takes away the sin of the world if they will only believe in Him.

WE know that we’ve been called in these years to draw people to Jesus by telling them about what He did to reconcile us to the God who created us in His own image and to have a relationship of dependence upon Him in everything.

That’s the ministry we’ve been given as new creatures. And that’s what Paul talks about in the next couple of verses.

2 Corinthians 5:18–19 NASB95

18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

What God was doing through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus was fixing a problem that we created but could never solve for ourselves.

Created in His image — to be LIKE Him and for fellowship WITH Him — we, instead, chose to rebel against Him in our sins, both great and small.

‘And by rebelling against the Creator of the universe, we set ourselves as His enemies, deserving death, both physical and spiritual.

We broke the fellowship and created a chasm that we could never bridge between ourselves and God.

But God loves us, and so He sent His unique and eternal Son, Jesus, to live a sinless life as a man. To give Himself as a sacrifice for us and in our place at the cross.

To take upon Himself our sins and the just penalty we deserve for them. To die and then to rise again on the third day, so that we who place our faith in Him and His sacrifice might LIVE.

So that we might have life the way it was always intended — in the joy and peace of fellowship with God and with Jesus for all eternity.

We sinners could never reconcile ourselves to a perfectly righteous and holy God. So He reconciled HIMSELF to US through Christ Jesus.

And for those of us who have accepted this gracious gift, our main job here on earth is to tell others about it, to draw them to Christ, in whom they, too, can be reconciled to God.

We’re to be ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse 20.

2 Corinthians 5:20 NASB95

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

When Jesus was here on earth, God made his appeal through Jesus for people to turn to him in faith.

But now, while Jesus sits at the right hand of God in heaven, waiting for the day when He will return for His Church, WE are the ones through whom God makes that appeal. If we don’t tell the lost world about Him, who will?

Love and unity and fellowship are wonderful things for a church to have. Indeed, they’re commanded by God in the Bible. But they’re not commanded simply so we can feel good being around one another. At least in part, they are a means to an end.

Love and unity and fellowship aren’t the job description. They’re the job qualifications. The job description is “ambassador.”

Let us be ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven. Let us make it our ambition as new creatures to go into the world and do the work of ambassadors. Let us be about this ministry of reconciliation. Let us make it our business to tell people about this Jesus in whatever situations God places us in.

I want to encourage you today to have the courage to let go of the tent and let the Holy Spirit blow it wherever He will.

What has God been calling you to do for His kingdom? Has he called you to teach? Has He called you to evangelism? Has He called you into the ministry? Has He called you to mentor some young person so you can share the love of Christ and the message of the gospel with them?

Whatever He is calling you to do — and I would submit that He’s calling every one of us to do SOMETHING for His Kingdom, even if he’s not calling you out of your present work — whatever that is, it is worthwhile.

Whatever it is, it very well may be the most important thing you ever could do.

You who follow Jesus in faith are new creatures! Don’t be afraid to leave the old creatures behind. Don’t be afraid to let go of the tent.