Living as New Creations

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back!

Tonight if you will start turning in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5.

Tonight we are going to be looking at another familiar passage in our Bibles, centered around Living as the New Creations Christ made us to be.

It is strange sometimes how God gets your attention on things.

I am always trying to listen and discern what the Lord wants me to preach about and the Scripture here in 2 Corinthians 5 has been on my mind all week.

I have heard it mentioned on the radio.

It was the main focus of the Daily Bread Devotional this past Tuesday.

And has came up over and over again.

And as I really began to look at the Scripture more closely, I began to gain a better understanding of the message Paul is trying to convey here.

We often consider this passage as one of encouragement and an explanation of one of the many benefits of being redeemed by the Lord.

It is all about being made new, “a new creation” as the passage puts it.

But there is a lot more to it than just that.

Paul is not telling us all of this about the “new creation” just to lift our spirits.

Paul is telling us this because he is removing excuses we make for not being true to God.

He is actually in many ways issuing a challenge to us to step up our game a bit.

The people he is writing to here have grown very accustomed to their ways.

They have become complacent and sort of stuck in their ways a bit as well.

So much so, they have allowed Satan to sneak in the back door and corrupt their community.

And while I do not think we are letting Satan in our back door, I do think we have a tendency to grow accustomed and a bit complacent at times.

And when we do that, that is dangerous because we tend to let our guard down a bit.

And that is where Satan gets us, when we let our guard down.

So tonight I want to refresh us and renew us a bit on what Paul says about Living as New Creations.

So, 2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 14, Paul writes . . .

Scripture Focus

2 Corinthians 5:14–21 NIV - Anglicised

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no-one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Compelled by Christ’s Love

Alright so we start out here with Paul making really a plea to the people.

Again in verse 14, he writes . . .

2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV - Anglicised

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

And what Paul is saying here is that his entire motivation for what he does is the fact that Christ loves Him.

Everything he does is motivated by the love of Jesus Christ.

Whether he is travelling and evangelizing across the country, writing letters of correction to the churches, taking a beating by the Jews or Romans, or sitting in a prison cell;

Every single thing Paul does is motivated and driven by the fact, not opinion or idea, but rather fact that Christ loves him.

Christ loves Paul so much that Christ died for him and his sins.

And, not only Paul, but for all.

Meaning that the same Christ that loves Paul to the point of dying for him, is the same Christ that loves each and every one of us, so much that He died for each and every one of us.

And what that death did, is put to death the power that sin has over humanity as well.

The last part of that verse says and therefore all died.

What that means is because one died for all, {Christ}, then that death paid the price for sin and it was the same as if each and every single one of us died for our sins.

Christ took the penalty in our place.

And because He did that for us, because He loves us, we have no more excuse for living in sin.

And we have no more excuse for not following Jesus.

His love should also compel us to live a life given over to Christ.

And just how should we be living?

Verse 15, says . . .

2 Corinthians 5:15 NIV - Anglicised

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

The those who live, that Paul is taking about here is us.

We should no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for [us] and was raised again.

We should be living for Christ.

We should be fulfilling the Great Commandment to love God with all our being and love our neighbor as ourselves.

We should be fulfilling the Great Commission in going and sharing the Gospel with others.

Not because we have to check it off our “get into heaven” checklist, but rather because we are compelled by the love we have for Christ, because He loves us.

New Creations

But this requires something on our part.

This actually requires a change in how we view ourselves and how we view the world around us.

In verse 16, Paul writes . . .

2 Corinthians 5:16 NIV - Anglicised

So from now on we regard no-one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

And this brings up the question, what is the worldly point of view?

Well, look around our world and it is obvious.

Remember last Sunday, those things that Paul told us to get rid of . . .

Ephesians 4:31 NIV - Anglicised

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, malice.

All of those things are what we are told to get rid of.

All of those things are centered in a wordly point of view, that selfishness and pride manifesting itself as these qualities.

But rather we are to . .

Ephesians 4:32 NIV - Anglicised

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

But the only way this happens is if we have a shift in our thinking and our behaving.

Something has to change—we have to change.

Because apparently it was so bad that not only did we view other people this way, we also regarded Christ in the same way.

But once we are redeemed by Jesus Christ, this is no longer the case.

Something changes within us, but what?

Well, Paul tells us in verse 17 . . .

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV - Anglicised

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

And this is important because we need to clarify what it actually means to be a “new creation.”

Paul is literally saying that when we are “in Christ” or redeemed by Christ, we are a completely new person.

It is not like being all dirty and taking a bath and putting on new clothes.

You may look nice and smell nice, but underneath you are the same old person.

No, what Paul is talking about here is being made completely new.

Christ changes who we are on the inside.

And most of the time it doesn’t automagically happen all at once.

But what happens is or wants and desires change.

Before Christ, all we wanted to do is please ourselves and take care of #1, regardless of what sin it involved.

After Christ though, we want to do better, do different.

We want avoid sin.

We want to live for Jesus.

We want to love God with all our being and demonstrate that love by loving others.

We want to do those things, but initially we are not perfect in it.

And I would venture to say that we will always have issues and never be completely 100% perfect in it.

There is always going to be something there to snag us up and hold us back.

But we strive each and every day to do better, to be better.

And that old person is completely gone.

Because the old person wouldn’t have cared if they sinned or not.

The New Person does care and wants to rise above it.

And through Christ we can.

But only through Christ.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

But that also comes with a job for us.

Christ didn’t just redeem us and make us new creations to sit around and do nothing with it.

We have been redeemed and because of that and our love that compels us, we also desire to help others being redeemed.

Verse 18 says . . .

2 Corinthians 5:18 NIV - Anglicised

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

He gave us this ministry of reconciliation.

In other words, he redeemed us and gave us this job to do.

And Paul goes on . . .

2 Corinthians 5:19–21 NIV - Anglicised

that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Altar/Challenge

And that is really the challenge that we all face tonight.

We have been reconciled to God.

We have been named as God’s ambassadors.

He has forgiven us, redeemed us, called us.

But are we living as the New Creations we are?

Or are we still doing our own things.

In Ephesians 4, Paul says . . .

Ephesians 4:1 NIV - Anglicised

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Are we doing that?

Are we serving as the ambassadors that we are called to be?

That is really all that Paul is talking about here.

Being who we are called to be.

Not making excuses of why we “cannot.”

Rising above it all and living for Christ.

Are we doing that tonight?

If not we can.

Have we grown complacent in where we are.

We can wake up tonight.

If we will.

Let’s pray . . .