A New Creation

Introduction:

Last Sunday morning, we began by asking in what specific ways the death and resurrection of Jesus compels or controls us.

Today, the question will be this: what does a life under Christ’s control look like?

Paul often takes up this topic in his letters, so hopefully, we will be able to round out a biblical perspective on the life of a believer.

One specific way Paul has already helped shape our thinking in this section is in 2 Cor. 5:15:

Those living no longer are living for themselves.

Salvation, reconciliation reorient how we understand life is to be lived.

Becoming a believer in Jesus in Christ is not a state of mind, it is not a political position.

We are not a people in mere pause.

Christ Transforms Our View of Others.

2 Cor. 5:16 points to a conclusion that Paul wants to apply to himself specifically.

The full implications of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection completely reorients how we view others from that point forward.

Paul, though, initially states this in the negative.

This must, in part, answer the accusations against him.

It must also establish Paul’s life as exemplary for all others for the life lived from a sound understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

He is not motivated by deception or gain.

He does not look upon others based upon appearances or superficial, comparative standards which human beings find comforting and appealing.

Paul includes his own views of Jesus in this transformation.

2 Cor. 5:16b either presents a hypothetical: “even if we have known...”

It may present a transformation of how he looked at Messiah:

No longer how he might be advantaged as a Jew or a Pharisee.

He may mean that like other Jews, he once looked at Jesus based upon what he saw on the outside.

Now, he no longer knows Christ from that point of view.

He has a much deeper understanding of the Messiah and what he came to accomplish that transcends his old, superficial perspective, and that transforms his own life.

Christ Transforms Us

Our relations with others are changed in Christ because in him we are changed.

This is because a new creation has happened.

Paul’s line of thinking here is an interesting development because it does not allow for passivity until the transformation of the body (see 2 Cor. 5:1-7).

We are awaiting part of the change, but it is a misunderstanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus to assume that nothing has changed in us.

We aren’t a people in pause awaiting a new body.

The new creation, in a sense, is a lived reality right now.

We are that new creation, and to know Christ means the fundamental transformation of the way we understand ourselves, our relationships, and others.

Let us return to Ephesians 2-5 and to Colossians 3.

Consider Romans 6 and Romans 12.

We are no longer interested in how we may advantage ourselves over others living for ourselves.

Life is lived for Christ to the benefit of others even if that is a detriment to ourselves.