Thrust Statement:  In Christ one becomes a new creation.

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:9-21

            On October 3, 1999, this congregation (Oakwood Hills Church) witnessed three souls who became a “new creation” in Christ Jesus.[1] What does it mean to be a “new creation” in Christ? Does this necessitate a change in one’s thinking?  Does this “new creation” demand a change in one’s way of living? Does this “new creation” call for a change in one’s conversations about God’s way of redemption? Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).[2]

BELIEF AND BEHAVIOR GO HAND IN HAND

            What Christians believe and how they behave go hand in hand; one cannot separate conviction and performance. For Paul obligation and belief go together.  It is in this vein that Paul admonishes the Corinthians to remember: “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it” (5:9). What is your purpose? Is your ambition to please God? When one is born for a second time, one’s target should always be to satisfy God. For one to give pleasure to God, there must be transformation in one’s conduct and thoughts. To the Christians at Colossae, Paul calls attention to the necessity of a change in behavior and thinking. He wants them to reflect upon the implications of their resurrection with Him:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4).

            For Paul, the new birth places emphasis on a change in one’s affection and a renovation in one’s thinking. The Christian not only sets his heart upon things above, but he also thinks heaven. Every believer now is a minister of the reconciliation. It is the duty of Chris, Kelly, Timothy (“T. J”), Donna, and Patrick to persuade sinners to be reconciled to God. Paul writes: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20).  Every believer should seek to tell the story of the cross, even in the face of opposition. Paul reminds the saints at Thessalonica:

You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you (1 Thessalonians 2:1-3).

MOTIVATION FOR MINISTRY:
THE FEAR OF THE LORD

            As Paul contemplates this ministry of reconciliation, he says,” Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11). The New Jerusalem Bible translates this verse: “And so it is with the fear of the Lord always in mind that we try to win people over.”[3] Do you fear the Lord? But what does it mean to fear the Lord?  This is not the kind of fear that a child awaits from his/her parents for disobedience. This fear is the fear that prevents one from desecrating a holy place. It is not so much terror as it is awe and reverence as you serve God. Moses asked the children of God: “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

Solomon says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline” (Proverbs 1:7). Again, the Holy Spirit says, “Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil” (16:6). Without this cleansing fear, one cannot serve God acceptably. The psalmist says, “The fear of the LORD is pure” (Psalms 19:9). Paul, in this second letter to Corinth, is trying to persuade the Corinthians of his own “fear of the Lord,” that is his to say, his sincerity of admiration and veneration. He wants them to understand his motives. He says in his defense:

Since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to help people accept the truth about us. God knows what we really are, and I hope that in your hearts you know, too. We are not trying to prove ourselves to you again, but we are telling you about ourselves so you will be proud of us (2 Corinthians 5:11-12).[4]

 

            Paul reacts over the feedback of others about his actions. He does not want his message injured.  He is conscious that any communication is judged in the context of one’s character. Paul desires to avoid even the appearance of evil lest his message be rejected. Thus, he lets the Corinthians know:

 

If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 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 (5:13-15).

Paul insists that there has been only one motivating factor in his service—to serve God and to assist the Corinthians in their relationship with God. Paul lived for the One who died and was raised again. Do you live for the One who died and was raised again? What is your motivating factor in your service? Is it to serve God and the saints in Christ Jesus?

A NEW CREATION

            Paul goes right to the heart of the moving motivation of it all—“he died for all.”  To Paul the Christian is “in Christ” (5:17). Every believer died with Christ and arose a new person. The hands of God freshly created him/her in this rebirth. In this newness of life, each person has a set of new standards—the Word of God.  God wants His children to separate themselves from the world around them. Christians are not to walk in darkness. It is in this regard that Paul admonishes the Ephesians: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.   Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:8-11).

            When one is a new creation in Christ Jesus, then there is a new set of priorities. One is careful about his/her activities in the Lord. Again, Paul cautions the Christians at Ephesus:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (5:15-21).

Every saint is to allow Jesus Christ to work out His will in his or her life. The author of Hebrews expresses it this way:

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen (Hebrews 13:20-21).

            Jesus died that individuals might live for Him. Paul captures this concept in his second letter to Corinth, when he writes: “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” (2 Corinthians 5:15).  This truth is also explained in his letter to Rome. In this epistle, Paul lets the Romans know that when Christ died, they, too, died in Him and with Him. He wanted them to understand that in their baptism, they identified themselves with Christ. He says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).  Again, he records:

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness (6:10-13).

            When Chris, “T. J.,” Donna, Patrick, Casey, David, Mike, and Jeremy were baptized, they died in order that they might live for God. This is the positive aspect of their identification with Christ. They not only died with Him, but they were raised with Him in order that they might “live a new life” (6:4). They, as well as all Christians, are to bear fruit for God’s glory: “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God” (7:4). Jesus died that we might live through Him. Jesus was raised from the dead in order that the “set apart” ones  might bear fruit to God.  John jots down: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

Every Christian should remember the words of Paul, “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” (1 Corinthians 5:15). If one has been to the cross and has been saved, how can one spend the rest of his or her life in selfishness? In 1858 Frances R. Havergal (1836–1879), while visiting Germany, saw a painting of the crucifixion with the words underneath: “I did this for thee, What hast thou done for Me?” Following this moving moment, she wrote a poem based on that motto. Shortly thereafter she threw the poem into the fire, but the paper came out unharmed. Her father encouraged her to polish the poem, and it was later published. Christians today still sing this poem set to music. Listen to the words:

I gave My life for thee,
            My precious blood I shed,
            That thou might’st ransomed be,
            And quickened from the dead.
            I gave, I gave, My life for thee,
            What hast thou given for Me?

CONCLUSION

Christ died that we might live through Him and for Him and with Him. Paul tells the Christians at Thessalonica: “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). What does it mean to you to say that you are a “new creation” in Christ Jesus. Are you conscious of the fact that you are reconciled to God through Jesus? Are you aware of the actuality that you are an ambassador of God?  Are you cognizant of the truth of God’s righteousness that is imputed to you through Jesus Christ? Listen again as Paul caps off what he says about a new creation:

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 (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).