I Am A New Creation In Christ
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: 2 Cor 5:17
Last week, I had two different people show me this…
So I think I got the picture… Today we will try to be done by 1:00PM.
Context
Context
Last week, we started a new series titled “Who Am I”. The heart behind this series is that we want to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” or “Who does God say that I am?”
In our first message, we saw that being a Christian means we are a child of God. As a child of God I am adopted into the family, I am loved by God, and I am assured of eternity in Him.
Today, we are going to look at another aspect of what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian not only means that “I Am A New Child In Christ”, but also that “ I Am A New Creation In Christ”.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
God says that when someone becomes a Christian, they go through a transformation. This transformation changes everything about them. It says that “all things have become new.”
First, let me say that this transformation is spiritual in nature. This does not mean that if you get saved you will get a new body, and that all of your aches and pains will go away. What this does mean, is that spiritually you are transformed into a new individual.
Notice that it says, “old things have passed away.” When someone chooses to truly believe in Jesus, the old person that was bound to sin in the flesh dies and a new person is born. That person is born again in Christ Jesus. This new birth must take place in order for their to be true salvation. Jesus said in John 3:7
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
And in this new birth, you are born with something that did not exist in the old person. This means to experience a new birth in Christ is to also experience a transformation in Christ. To be a new child in Christ is to also be a new creation in Christ. And the thing that is different is this, the spiritual part of you that has always existed, but has been dead to God, is now alive and has become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
We mention the Holy Spirit quiet a bit in passing, but we really don’t teach on the Holy Spirit as much as we should. I think there are a couple of reasons why this is:
We focus most of our preaching and teaching efforts on Jesus…
And we should…
It is Jesus that God sent in the likeness of sinful flesh to fulfill the Law and deliver mankind from sin.
It is Jesus who died on the cross, sacrificing Himself on our behalf.
It is the name of Jesus that every knee will bow to and every tongue will confess.
It is Jesus to whom God has given all authority in heaven and on earth.
It is Jesus, the Lamb of God slain before the world, that is the Only One found worthy to open the seals of the scroll in Revelation.
It is Jesus that we are told is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He alone is the only path to the Father.
And it is Jesus that we are told we must believe in in order to experience new life.
So yes, we focus most of our time preaching and teaching Jesus, because the Gospel of salvation spends most of its time focused on Jesus.
There is a great number within the Christian faith who have, in my opinion, greatly misunderstood and misrepresented the ministry of the Holy Spirit within the life of the believer.
Because of the many different viewpoints on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I think we have ashamedly kept our conversation of Him to a minimum, which is not fair to Him or to the Church.
The Holy Spirit’s ministry in our lives can not be replaced. Scripture teaches us that without the Holy Spirit, we could not even be saved. There is no level of importance that we could ascribe to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives that would even come close to accurately depicting how important He really is.
With that being said, we are going to take our time here. There is so much to unpack concerning the Holy Spirit, but for today, we want to focus on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in making us a new creation.
I Am A New Creation In Christ
Content
Content
To start with, I want us to examine the trinitarian nature of God. And let me start by start by saying this. To think that any finite being, such as ourselves, could fully grasp or explain the nature of an infinite being, such as God, is absurd.
But knowing the fact that we could never and will never fully understand God in full is no excuse for us to sit back and say, “What’s the point.” Though we may never be able to fully explain God here on this earth, does not negate the fact that God has revealed Himself to us in so many ways through creation, through His Word, and through Jesus.
It is beneficial to us to understand the nature of God, because the more we understand of Him, the more we can understand of ourselves and His will for our lives. We are to study diligently the things of God, so that we might draw near to Him and be faithful to Him.
Scripture makes it very clear that there is only one God.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me…
*** Draw a circle in the center and place “GOD” in the circle.
With that being said, our Heavenly Father has manifested Himself to us in three distinct persons: The Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit.
*** Draw three bridges from the center circle in a triangle formation with the bottom circle directly below the center circle. There should be a circle at the end of each of these bridges. Place “FATHER” in the top left circle, “SON” in the top right circle, and “SPIRIT” in the bottom circle.
As we have already seen, Scripture teaches us that we are to believe in and worship only one God. But Scripture also reveals to us that each of these distinct persons of God are to be considered God in their own person.
The Father
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him…
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers?
*** So the Father “IS” God. Scripture clearly teaches us that the Father is to be viewed as God.
The Son
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
8 But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
30 I and My Father are one.”
6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
*** So Jesus “IS” God. The Scriptures clearly state that Jesus is to be considered God, just as much as the Father is to be considered God.
The Holy Spirit
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?
4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
*** So the Holy Spirit “IS” God. The Scriptures clearly teach that the Holy Spirit is to be considered God, just as the Father and the Son are to be considered God.
Now some at this point will say, “But you have already quoted the Scripture that says there is only one God. So these cannot be three separate distinct persons, but rather just three different manifestations of the same God. The Father was in heaven, then came to earth in the form of Jesus, and now resides in the hearts of believers. But these are all simply just three different forms of the same God.”
Some do believe this, but to them, I have to ask how they reconcile certain verses in Scripture like:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God refers to Himself with plural pronouns, “Us; Our”. If this is indeed before the creation of the world and God alone is the One who created mankind, who is God speaking to here?
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
These verses clearly show that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct from one another. Jesus (the Son) is being baptized in the water, the dove (The Holy Spirit) alights on His shoulder, the voice (The Father) speaks from Heaven while the Son and the Spirit are both standing in the water on earth. How could this possible be true if they are not distinct from one another?
7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
This verse seems to indicate that these three are separate persons, each of which bear witness in heaven.
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
How is this possible if they are not distinct from one another?
*** So the Father “IS NOT” the Son. The Son “IS NOT” the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit “IS NOT” the Father. But each of them “IS” God.
This is the concept of the Trinity. These three are separate and distinct from one another but they are all God and they are One. They work in perfect harmony with one another. They have the same mindset as one another. They all respond in unity to every action, every situation, and every event.
These three make up what is called “The Trinitarian Godhead”.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
Now that we understand, to the best of our ability, the trinitarian nature of God, let us talk about the trinitarian nature of man.
Once again, there are some who do not believe that mankind has a triune nature. Some believe that man consists only of body and soul. Let me say that there are verses in Scripture that seem to indicate both of these understandings. This is a very debatable topic, and both viewpoints come from Scripture. It simply comes down to how one interprets the Scripture.
But I believe that mankind has a triune nature, just as our God does. Unlike God, it is limited greatly because we are finite creatures, but it is triune in nature nonetheless.
***Draw three circles, all in a straight line down the board. “Spirit” goes on top, then “Soul”, then “Body” on the bottom.
My body speaks simply of the physical me. It is the flesh and bones. It is the muscles, veins, and arteries. It is the physical me. Because it is physical, it is drawn to the physical. That is why physical things are so tempting. Our bodies long for and crave the things of this world because our bodies are of this world… literally. We were made from the very dust of the ground that covers this world.
My soul is my conscience. It is the part of me where emotions dwell. It is the part of me that thinks and operates. It is the part of me that processes information and then decides how to react. It is the mental part of me. It is in our souls that we decide how to live our lives. Before we know God, our souls are bent towards the flesh and live for it. But once we have believed in Jesus and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our spirits, our souls are now impressed upon by two opposing forces: the flesh and the spirit.
My spirit is that part of me that is designed by God to be in fellowship with God. It is the part of me in which the Holy Spirit dwells. It is the part of me, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit who dwells within it, that wages war against the flesh, bringing it into subjection to God. It is through our spirit that the Holy Spirit brings conviction and guidance to our souls.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
So we are told that mankind is created in the image of God… in His likeness. I believe this to mean that we are created with the same nature of God… that we have a triune nature.
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with God, but God gave them a warning:
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Now we all know the story. They existed for some time in the Garden (we don’t know how long), but at some point, Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit. It says:
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
So the question becomes, how did they die? God said that “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” We know that Adam and Eve did eventually die in the physical sense, but that was over 900 years later, so we can hardly say that it happened “in the day” they ate of the fruit.
So if this death that God spoke of wasn’t in the physical sense, what was He referring to? I believe He meant a spiritual death.
Notice that before they ate the fruit, it tells us that God came down in the cool of the day and spent time with Adam and Eve every day. Before they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve welcomed the presence of the Lord, but after they ate the fruit, it says that they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God”. What changed? What was different from before to where they would hide themselves from God instead of welcoming Him?
A spiritual death took place.
Before the fall, I believe that the spirit of man was in perfect unity with the Spirit of God. But after they ate the fruit, their spirit was darkened, or marred, to a point that their fellowship with God was broken. They were separated from Him.
From then on, the sinful disposition of mankind has been passed down from one generation to the next all the way to Christ.
During this time, the Holy Spirit never indwelt man. He impressed upon the soul of man, but He never indwelt, or lived inside of man.
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This shows us that the Holy Spirit did not indwell, or live inside of, the spirit of man, until after Pentecost. It was at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was sent down to take up residence in the spirit of man, causing this “new birth” that Jesus spoke of.
It is in this new birth, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that a man is transformed into a new creation.
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
The Holy Spirit washes us, sanctifies us, and justifies us before God. It is in this process that we are transformed into a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Praise God for this transformation, Amen!
And through this transformation, we are now able to be one in our spirits with God:
17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Commitment
Commitment
