Celebrating our Newness in Christ

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Well, I hope you had a very merry Christmas. Even if there were difficult aspects of this Christmas season I hope all of those were placed in their proper perspective as you reflected on the incredible gift of Jesus Christ, whom God sent in order to redeem and save us from our sins.

Now, if you’ve been around Faith Church for a while usually the first Sunday or depending on the Calendar one of the first Sundays of the new year focuses on “Where are We? Where Have we Been? Where are we Going? And How do you Fit in?”

Lord willing, that sermon will be preached by Pastor Viars’ next week on the 8^th so if you call Faith Church your home church then I would strongly encourage you to make sure that you’re here for that message next week. Also, please be in prayer for the upcoming year and ask for the Lord to bless his word next week that will hopefully guide us as a body of believers in a direction of increasing stewardship.

This morning we’re focusing on Our Newness in Christ, which is very appropriate year round, but may find special significance as we look forward to a new year and the hope of things being different than last year.

While things in our country, or news around the world may give us plenty of reason for discouragement, our newness in Christ should give us tremendous hope! Although, there are many things which seem hopeless, or which seem like they’ll never change, Christ’s power to make things new gives us hope that our own lives can grow and change this upcoming year. It gives us hope that old habits can be replaced by new habits that are pleasing to the Lord. And that sinners who are stuck in sin, can be transformed by the gospel in order to live for Christ.

So let me invite you to open up to 2 Cor. 5:14–21. That’s 2 Corinthians 5:14–21. If you’re using the Bible that’s under the chair in front of you that’s on page 142 in the back section.

So we’re focusing on Celebrating Our Newness in Christ and from this text we’ll find 3 ways to live out our new life in Christ. With that in mind follow along with me as I read.

[Read 2 Cor. 5:14–21]

We are focusing this morning on 3 Ways to Live Out Our New Life In Christ

The first way is to be controlled by the love of Christ (vv.14–15)

I. Be controlled by the love of Christ (vv.14–15)

v.14 truly captures the beauty of the gospel very succinctly.

“For the love of Christ controls us” – that is what it means to be a Christian. We are controlled by Christ’s love.

One dictionary on the NT gives the following definition for the word translated “controlled”:

’To be claimed, totally controlled’ is…the meaning of the verb in two of Paul’s letters: 2 Cor. 5:14 and Phil. 1:23. It is the love of Christ which ‘completely dominates’ Paul (2 C. 5:14) so that on the basis of Christ’s death the only natural decision for him, as for all other believers, is no longer to live for self but to life for Christ.[1]

Generally, unless we are talking about our favorite sports team, “complete domination” is usually not thought of as a good thing.

• Being controlled often is not thought of as a good thing.

But in 2 Cor. 5:14, being controlled is a very good thing! Being controlled by Christ’s love for us is a wonderful position to be in. And the reason that’s such a wonderful position to be in, is because of the position that we were in before we were saved.

• This passage doesn’t make the point explicitly, but it is clear from the rest of Scripture that everyone is controlled by something.

Paul is making it clear to the Corinthians and to us that Christians are to be controlled by Christ’s amazing love for us.

The question everyone needs to ask is, “What am I controlled by? Is it Christ’s love or is it something else.”

• The Bible is very clear that everyone is under the control of one of two things:
  • You’re either controlled by Christ and righteousness as we see in v.14
  • OR you’re controlled by your sinful flesh.

That’s what’s Romans 6 discusses at length, and v.6 of Rom. 6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

• Before a person places their faith and trust in Jesus, they are a slave to sin. That means they were controlled by sin…dominated by sin.

How that looks in each persons’ life is different:

1. Perhaps before you trusted in Christ you were controlled by the opinions and thoughts of other people.

All of your words and actions were aimed at making or maintaining your reputation.

• The thoughts of others controlled you…
  • if I could just make your boss happy,
  • if I can just please my spouse,
  • if my kids will just like me then my life will be good.

2. Maybe it wasn’t your reputation, maybe it’s was your success.

You’ve worked and sacrificed everything to get the next job promotion. The goal of having a successful career or being successful in school has controlled you and dominated your thinking and actions.

3. Maybe it was your comfort or ease that controlled you.

Finding the easiest job, working the fewest hours, using all of your free time to play video games or catching up on all the episodes of newest show. Or maybe life was great as long as my kids did exactly what I wanted them to.

All of those desires and goals though, they were actually cruel, dominating task masters. The life that we thought we were in control of was actually revealed to be a life of enslavement and domination by sin.

The hope that v.14 lays out for all of us is that we don’t have to be controlled by our sin…we don’t have to be enslaved to our sin. RATHER, we can be controlled by the love of Christ.

And being controlled by the love of Christ means that we have a new goal in life!

Our new goal in life is to “LIVE FOR HIM AND NOT YOURSELF.”

A. Live for him and not yourself (cf. 5:9)

You see the newness that we have in Christ means that we have a new purpose to live for. No longer is my purpose to please people; no longer is my purpose to achieve success; no longer is my purpose to just have an easy, comfortable life.

NO. My new purpose is to live for the one who loves me so much that he died for my sake and was raised again.

That’s why 2 Cor. 5:9 is such a foundational verse for us here at Faith Church. Paul says, “So whether we are at home or away we make it our aim to please him.”

• At home or away…Paul is talking about whether we are alive on this earth or whether we are dead and gone, our aim, our purpose is to please Christ!

If you haven’t memorized that verse, I would encourage you to do that today.

One of the counselors who has been counseling around here for many years emphasizes with counselees, that “they must want to glorify God more than they want to breathe.”…more than they want to breathe!

Is that how much Christ’s love controls you?

A great example and illustration of a man who lived for Christ and not himself was Eric Liddell.

If you’ve seen the movie “Chariots of Fire,” that movie is about Eric Liddell. He was a tremendous runner who went to the Olympics 1924.

There were a number of circumstances and events that make Liddell extremely memorable, but what branded Eric Liddell into the minds of millions for the next century was his unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ.

Eric Liddell was a committed follower of Jesus Christ and his belief was that the Lord’s Day—Sunday—was to be holy unto the Lord. Therefore, when Eric learned in the fall of 1923 before the Olympics in 1924 that his best race—the 100 meter dash—was going to be held on a Sunday, he had a difficult decision to make.

Eric Mataxas writes this about Liddell in his book “Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness”

…while deeply regretting that he would not be able to run, Eric did not hesitate making and abiding by his decision. As far as he was concerned, Sunday was the Lord’s Day—not a day for playing games—even the Olympic Games. Instead, it was a day for rest and worship. Eric took the Lord’s command seriously, that we are to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. As he saw it, running in the Olympics on that day was out of the question, and Eric could not compromise on what he believed God had commanded.[2]

And you better believe that Eric received a lot of heat and push back for his decision not to run. Scottland, the nation he was competing for was—as Mataxas puts it—

“flabbergasted and outraged. And they were not about to let the misguided fanaticism and arrogance of this overly religious young man ruin Scotland’s chances for national glory! They would use any means necessary to get this annoyingly headstrong young man to run. [3]

Therefore, people tried all sorts of arguments to get him to run:

…they tried to convince Liddell that there was no real problem with running on Sunday….[but he did not] buy the argument that he could worship God in the morning and run to God’s glory in the afternoon. When, in frustration, a committee member pointed out that the Continental Sabbath lasted only until noon, Eric testily responded, ‘Mine lasts all day.’[4]

The point of the story about Eric Liddell is not to get into what you believe about the Sabbath. Rather, the question is, “What gave Eric such incredible resolve and confidence in his decision, despite so many people being upset by his choice?”

• In short, it’s because he was controlled by the love of Christ.
• It’s because he was not living for himself, but for Jesus Christ.
• Liddell’s aim, his ambition and purpose in life was to be pleasing to the Lord!

And notice how that freed him up to make the choice not to run without being crippled by the fear and anxiety of other people’s opinions. A majority of the nation thought he was letting them down. But Liddell understood that Christ’s love for him was so great, that the only person he was concerned about pleasing was Christ.

Well, how do you get to the point of being controlled like Eric Liddell? How does Christ’s love become so dominant in your life that everything else becomes secondary to pleasing Christ?

Paul tells us in vv.14–15. He says, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

So the reason that Christ’s love can control us and that we can live for him is because of our conclusion that “Christ died and rose.”

B. Because Christ died and rose.

What Paul tells us here is actually quite striking. It runs completely contrary to how our culture approaches life…this is totally contrary to our culture!

Our culture, and if we’re being honest, often we look at life and say, “my circumstances are the problem.” If I could change my circumstances, then life would be better or I wouldn’t’ have as many problems.

• If I had a different job that had better hours, or more pay, or more vacation then life would not be so difficult.
• Or if I had a spouse who understood me…I mean really understood me, then my life would be better.
• Or maybe you think if I just had a spouse. If I could just find the one that is right for me, then I’ll have finally arrived!
• Or Maybe it’s your health. Maybe it’s a chronic disease or serious diagnosis that you just think, if that would go away then everything will be fine.

So our culture looks to circumstances and says, “that’s the issue. That’s the problem.”

That’s what we and our culture tend to think. We tend to think our circumstances have to change for things to get better.

BUT, that’s not what Paul is saying. Paul doesn’t say your circumstances need to be different. What Paul is saying, is you have to THINK differently. Remember, everyone is controlled and dominated by something. The only question is, are you dominated and controlled by Christ’s love for you or is it your sinful desires.

The way you change what controls you…the way you change what controls your words and your action and your emotions, is by thinking! IT’s by changing your conclusion!

You see the person that says, “My circumstances are the problem.” They have concluded that the circumstances are the most important factor in their life!

• Paul says, “I am controlled by Christ because I’ve concluded this! I have come to this conclusion!”
• You see you need to come to a different conclusion!
  • A different conclusion than, “my circumstances are the problem.”

And this is the most important conclusion that you can ever come to in your entire life.

• It’s that Christ has indeed died.
• But not just that he died…not just that I believe the evidence that Jesus lived and died, but that his death was substitutionary.
  • His death literally took the place of the death you deserved.
  • That’s why Paul says at the end of v14. “one died for all, THEREFORE all have died.”

Christ’s death was for all people who would believe in his substitutionary death.

And maybe you’d say, “Why would I need Christ to die for me?”

• v.21 gives us the answer…it’s because of our sin. Romans 6:23, says “the wages of sin is death.” Our sin earns for us death, but the good news of the gospel is that Christ’s death was for you! He literally took the death you deserved because of your sin!

But it’s not only Christ’s death that is important, it’s also his resurrection!

• V.15 – “he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf!”

Christ’s resurrection was on our behalf! You ask, what does that mean that Christ rose on our behalf?

• Galatians 2:20 explains it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

You see, my old self that was controlled and enslaved by sin was crucified with Christ, and now the life I live is “Christ in me.” His resurrected life is what brings life to me now, so that I am no longer controlled by sin, but rather controlled by Christ’s love.

It’s his substitutionary death that screams the love of Christ for me. That’s why John 3:16 is such a foundational verse:

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

John Newton and William Cowper wrote a hymn that illustrates how initially choosing to live for Christ and not for ourselves changes as we understand how much he loved us. They wrote:

Our pleasure and our duty

Though opposite before,

Since we have seen his beauty,

Are joined to part no more.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled,

To hear his pardoning voice,

Changes a slave into a child

And duty into choice.

So the first way we live out our new life in Christ is by “Being controlled by Christ’s love.”

The 2^nd way to live out your new life in Christ flows right out of the being controlled by Christ’s love.

It’s by Adopting a new perspective.

II. Adopt a new perspective (vv.16–17)

That’s what Paul means when writes in

vv.16–17, “Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Being new means that you’re controlled by something new…your controlled by Christ’s love. And Christ’s love even controls your perspective.

A key piece of that new perspective is recognizing you have a new identity.

C. Recognize you have a new identity – how we view ourselves

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

This verse is about all believers. This verse is about every genuine Christian who has placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

• If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.

This verse is stating emphatically that you have been made new. And this has very important implications for our day to day lives.

Because, I don’t know about you, but there are days when “I’m just not feelin’ it.”

• Can anyone resonate with that? That there are days when you just don’t feel new?
  • The days where you just don’t seem to have enough energy.
  • The days or maybe string of days when life just seems overwhelming.
  • Or those seasons when it seems like the struggles you’ve been battling aren’t getting any less intense…it seems like you’re not gaining any ground.

Friends, can I suggest to you that your new identity, while it doesn’t do away with all of those things…YET…in this life it totally transforms how you view them?

• That’s why Paul can write in 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NASB95) 16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Brothers and sisters, our new identity transforms our weariness, the things that overwhelm us and the trials and battles that seemingly never end, into momentary, light affliction!

And that happens when we understand that Christ has made us new creatures!

• Notice that Paul didn’t say, “in Christ, he is a new person.”
• “Creature is kind of an interesting word.” We are creatures, but that’s not usually how we describe each other…

For example, I don’t look out in the auditorium and think, “Wow, there sure are a lot of creatures here today!”

• No! I would say, “Wow there sure are a lot of people in the auditorium today.”

So what does Paul mean by “New Creatures?”

• The word creature makes us think about CREATION. And it’s not just this one word that gets us thinking about CREATION, it’s also the larger context of the passage.
• At the end of 2 Corinthians 4, vv.16–18 which I just read, and the beginning of 2 Corinthians 5, Paul discusses the “things that are seen and the things that are unseen.”
  • He discusses a “tent that is our earthly home” and “a building from God” which is “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
• What Paul is discussing at the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5 is that this earth, where we currently live, it’s not truly what we have been created for! God has created us and is preparing us for eternity in heaven! He’s preparing us for a home in the new creation! A creation that is free from curse of sin.

All of this context prepares us for v.17 where Paul says that everyone in Christ is a new creature. That means that in Christ you have been re-created.

• In the first creation, Genesis 1 records that God created everything through his Word.
• For everyone who has trusted in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, you’ve been re-created—made new—through the WORD that became flesh; by believing the WORD of God contained in Scripture.
• You’ve been re-created for a “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” as 2 Cor. 5:1 says.

John MacArthur, commenting on this passage writes,

The transformation wrought by the new birth is not only an instantaneous miracle but also a lifelong process of sanctification. For those so transformed, everything changes; the old things have passed away. Old values, ideas, plans, loves, desires, and beliefs vanish, replaced by the new things that accompany salvation…God plants new desires, loves, inclinations, and truths in the redeemed, so that they live in the midst of the old creation with a new creation perspective (cf. Gal. 6:14).[5]

God has made us for the new creation, but we still live presently in this old creation. But as new creatures our perspective radically changes!

Let me ask you, “Are you allowing your identity as a new creature to influence how you view yourself?”

• Do you still view yourself according to old things?
  • Do you see the clothes you wear as more important than the new creation God has prepared you for?
  • Is your career or your success your primary identify? Do you see yourself primarily as an “engineer,” or a “doctor” or an “artist?”
  • Is your identity primarily found in what others think of you, so that you are controlled by others opinions?
• Or do you see yourself as a new creature and evaluate yourself by a totally new standard?
  • It’s not my outward appearance that matters but my heart.
  • It’s not the things I own that are important, but the Savior who has created me for a new purpose.
  • It’s my own ability and strength that I rely on, but the strength of Jesus who died and rose again on my behalf.
    • Therefore, change that was impossible before Christ is not only possible, but certain!
  • It’s not the opinions of others that control me, but the opinion of my Lord…and his opinion, his conclusion if you’re in Christ is that you are a new creation!

If you’re in Christ, then you need to adopt a new perspective, which in part involves your new identity.

But adopting a new perspective goes beyond how you view yourself, it also affects how you view the whole world.

As new creatures we need to view the world through the lens of new life in Christ.

D. View the world through the lens of new life in Christ – affects how we view others

That’s what Paul means when he writes in v.16, “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”

Paul is not making a comment about the biology or physical matter of Christ while he was on this earth. His point is that before Christ, his assessment and everyone’s assessment of Christ was simply from an outward, external perspective.

• Do you remember Paul’s assessment of Christ based on the flesh?
  • He concluded that Christ was a blasphemer!
  • He concluded that anyone who believed and confessed Christ as Lord and Savior had abandoned and forsaken the Scriptures!
  • That’s why he threw Christians and jail and persecuted the church of Christ with zeal!
• But after he encountered the glorified, risen Christ on the road to Damascus, his perspective changed!
  • Paul no longer knew Christ simply on a human, fleshly level.
  • Now he knows Christ according to the Spirit and according to truth!
    • Through the Spirit he saw Christ in the OT Scriptures, where he hadn’t before.
    • Through the Spirit he saw that the Christ is indeed Lord and Savior.

And that change in perspective of viewing Christ not according to the flesh, and worldly standards also impacts how we view others. Because we don’t judge Christ based on our flesh, we also don’t judge other people that way.

We view people according to how God views them.

• People fundamentally are no longer, physical matter and biology.
• They are no longer simply co-workers or fellow students.
• They are no longer fundamentally white, or black, American or Hispanic, European or Chinese, female or male!
• Fundamentally, they are souls. They are people who are either “new creatures in Christ”---brothers and sisters in Christ,
  • Or they are still part of this old world…lost and destined for hell apart from Christ.

In Christ I am compelled to view people based on the Spirit and not on the flesh.

That impacts how we should come to church, doesn’t it?

• Do you come to church and see everyone else around you and assume, “They must be good. They are here. They are dressed well. They are smiling. Therefore, they must be doing well.”
• Or do you come to church hoping and expecting to get to know others.
  • You want to get beneath the surface and worldly standards.
  • You want to get past the externals of clothing and smiles…
  • Do you want to know people according the flesh or according to the Spirit?

If we’re a church that’s full of “new creatures in Christ”, then that should be evident in practical ways:

• We should be people that come looking to encourage others in Christ.
• We should be people that are quick to ask for help from others and to ask for prayer.
• Maybe before the service even starts, there may be times when it would be appropriate for you to pray with someone who you’ve met that has found themselves in a discouraging place.
• We should be people that are coming to church hoping to help connect people to resources and ministries and serving opportunities because I know that may be extremely helpful in their relationship with Christ.

Well, as we learn to adopt this new perspective of seeing ourselves as new creatures, and as we start to view the world and others through the lens of the Spirit and not the flesh, that leads us to Embrace our new mission!

III. Embrace your new mission (vv.18–21)

And your new mission is a Ministry of reconciliation.

E. A ministry of reconciliation (vv.18–19)

It’s a ministry of reconciliation.

vv.18–19 say,

¹⁸ Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ [he explains what that means in v.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.

This all starts with us recognizing how much we personally needed to be reconciled to God.

• The word translated as Reconciliation means “the exchange of hostility for a friendly relationship.”[6]

The gospel reveals to us, that before Christ we aren’t neutral to God. We aren’t just indifferent to God. Rather, we are hostile, enemies of God!

• Romans 5:10 is one place, and there are many others that make this point clear!
• For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…”
• Romans 1:30 describes unbelievers as “haters of God!”

But because of God’s incredible love and mercy he reconciled us to himself through Christ substitutionary death. It was through his death on your behalf that he could “not count our trespasses against us!”

And now since we’ve been reconciled to God, we have been given the privilege of proclaiming the possibility of reconciliation to the whole world!

And notice when you receive this ministry…you receive at the time that you are reconciled!

• You are reconciled and hired as a minister…a proclaimer of reconciliation!

A really good goal for all believers for 2017, would be to grow in our ministry of reconciliation.

• To grow in our skill of proclaiming the reconciling message of the gospel!

And when you’re doing that you’re living as the Ambassador that Christ has called you to be.

We are Ambassadors for Christ.

F. Ambassadors for Christ (vv.20–21)

2 Corinthians 5:20–21 (NASB95)

²⁰Therefore, 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. ²¹He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Why does God call us “ambassadors”?

• Well this goes back to our new identity. We are new creatures. We are not made for this world which is passing away, but we are made to dwell in heaven with God!
• Therefore, in Christ we recognize that we are away from our true home!
• We share the conclusion in 1 Peter, that we are sojourners…this world is not our home!

But while we are away from home…while we are awaiting heaven, we aren’t on vacation. We aren’t sitting around with nothing to do.

• No! We are representing Christ as Ambassadors.
• And that means that “God is making his appeal through us!” God is using us in order to proclaim the message of reconciliation to the world!

If we let that phrase in v.20, “as though God were making an appeal through us” really sink in, I believe that this year, 2017 will be characterized by passionate, enthusiastic evangelism and outreach.

• Think about, God wants to reconcile sinners to himself and the way he is letting everyone know is through you!

• Who is going to tell your neighbor about the reconciliation and newness that is possible through Christ?
• Who is going to tell your co-worker that he can have peace with God through Christ?
• Who is going to proclaim to your unbelieving friends and relatives that God loved them so much that “he made JESUS, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, SO THAT we (sinners, enemies and haters of God) might become the righteous of God in him.”

The answer is, “YOU!”

What a privilege. What a stewardship for the Lord all of us to grab ahold of for this year.

Let’s pray.