New Creations in Christ

New Creations in Christ
2 Cor. 5:17

There are many benefits to being a follower of Christ in a country like the United States where we have freedom of religion. We have tax exempt status as a church, we don’t worry about your leaders being hauled off to jail, we can have public baptisms down at Dean’s Mill, we can post Bible verses to Facebook, we can go on mission trips and pass out Bibles and other religious literature at the Youth Fair, you can pray with your Christian co-workers, and the list goes on and on. And when you think about it, we live in a country that is saturated with Christianity – Christian colleges and seminaries and Christian schools, Christian camps, Christian television, Christian Radio, Christian movies, Christian music, Christian artists.
There is no shortage of “Christianity” in our country.

But at the same time, there is a very serious danger, even an insidious danger, that necessarily goes along with the freedoms we enjoy, and that is the danger of embracing Christianity without embracing Jesus the Christ. And guess who is most prone to this danger that results in people passing into eternity separated from Christ, doomed to eternal torment? People who grow up in religious homes. People who are raised in Christian families. It is because of this danger that I feel compelled to speak to you this morning about what it means to be a new creation in Christ. So if your parents are or were Christians, if “church” has been a major part of your life for as long as you can remember, I want you to pay special attention to what we are talking about today.

Our text is found in 2 Cor. 5:17, and in this verse Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The point Paul is making here is that you cannot have a genuine experience with Jesus Christ, and remain unchanged. Let me say that again. You cannot have a genuine experience with Jesus Christ, and remain unchanged. In other words, if you claim to be born again, if you claim that Jesus is your savior, if you claim that you expect to spend eternity in heaven and you are no different today than you were before you came to Christ, you better give some serious though to your salvation claim. Because the point Paul makes in this verse is that a genuine salvation experience changes you. You are a “new creation.” “The old has passed away, the new has come.”

Let’s look at some passages in the New Testament that illustrate this truth. We will start in the book of 1 Corinthians, and look how Paul shows this truth in chapter 6, verses 9 – 11.

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall 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 Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

Let’s look next at Eph. 2:2-7. And again, note the presence of a changed life. It is seen primarily in the tenses.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The third passage we need to look at is Eph. 4:17-32. This passage is important because it shows us the process of becoming a new creation. In other words, what steps do we actually have to take if we want to change from our former way of life to a way of life that pleases God?

17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Now at this point, Paul is going to illustrate that threefold process in five different ways. He addresses the issues of lying, sinful anger, stealing, unwholesome speech, and destructive behavior.

25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Lying – you replace with truth

26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. Sinful anger - you replace with resolution
28 Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.

Stealing – you replace with honest work

29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Unwholesome speech – you replace with edifying words

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Destructive behavior – you replace with kindness, etc.

So do you see how it works? You put off the old, change your thinking, and put on the new. Now the final passage I want us to see quickly is in 1 Pt. 4:1-5, where again we see the contrast between life lived before Christ, and life lived after coming to Christ.

Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 And in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation, and they malign you; 5 but they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

So here we have four biblical examples of what a new creation in Christ looks like. Do you see the reality that when a person has a genuine experience with Jesus, he is changed? Do you see that he is a different kind of person? Now building on this, I want to take you the book of 1 John to show you four evidences of this new life. In other words, we just looked at illustrations of how this change works, now I want to show you proofs, or evidences, that you are a new creation.

1. You will have a new desire to obey your Lord. 2:3-6, 2:28-29

3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. (1Jo 2:3-6 NAS)

28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him (1Jo 2:28-29 NAS)

Cf. how my parents used to take the Bible and appeal to me as a teenager to change my ways, and my response was, “So, what’s your point?”

2. You will have a new love for other Christians. 2:9-11, 3:11-15

9 The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.10 The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1Jo 2:9-11 NAS)

11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1Jo 3:11-15 NAS)

Cf. people who say to me, I really love God, it’s just his people I can’t tolerate.

3. You will have a new attitude toward sin. 3:4-10, 5:18

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1Jo 3:4-10 NAS)

18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. (1Jo 5:18 NAS)

Cf. how I used to love sin, it was enjoyable; but now I’m grieved by it.

4. You will have a new understanding of who Jesus is. 5:1

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. (1Jo 5:1 NAS)

Cf. how differently people think about Jesus. A radical revolutionary, a wise teacher, a moral philosopher, a good luck charm. In reality though, He is the Christ, the anointed one, the promised Messiah and Savior of the Old Testament.

So as we skim through the book of 1 John we see that when a person comes to Christ for salvation, there is visible evidence of the change that comes into his life. He will have a new desire to obey his Lord. He will have a new love for his brothers in Christ. He will have a new attitude toward sin. And he will have a new understanding of who Jesus is.

Something that is interesting to me as I read through 1 John is what is missing. There is nothing here that says:

 “And you know you have passed from death unto life because you go to church every Sunday.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who were in church every Sunday!

 “And you know you have passed from death unto life because you love southern gospel music.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who love southern gospel music!

 “And you know you have passed from death unto life because you prayed the “sinners prayer” when you were a child.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who prayed the sinners prayer at their mother’s knee as a child.

 “And you know you have passed from death unto life because you believe in Jesus.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who believe that Jesus was a literal, historical, man.

The question I want to leave you with this morning is, “are you a new creation in Christ?” Remember Paul’s point: “It is impossible to have a genuine experience with Jesus Christ and remain unchanged.” So just take a moment and think about it. “Are you a new creation in Christ?” If your answer is “yes,” what evidence can you appeal to as proof? What “old” things have passed out of your life, and what “new” things have you replaced it with? How are you doing in these four areas John mentions? John uses very strong, categorical language in these verses that is designed to make us stop and analyze where we are.

So as you examine your life this morning, if you don’t see the change in your life that the Bible talks about, why don’t you deal with that right now?