We've begun a new series of study on the Gospel of Grace. We are digging deep expounding on the truths of this glorious Gospel. We've seen that this Gospel isn't a religion. It isn't a message of lethargy but at the same time, not a message rooted in works and personal achievements and performance.
Today, I sense the leading to expound on the reality of the New Creation. What it means to be a New Creation in Him. We need to understand what this New Creation entails. We also need to understand what it doesn't mean to be a New Creation but will get to that.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
As a new believer, I had this passage memorized. It was a verse that always brought me joy. Yet, in most churches, the fullness of this passage wasn't expounded. What it really means to be a New Creation in Christ was not fully explored.
How can I say this with such boldness? How can I be so direct? Because so often, I am seeing believers share things about their struggles. The challenges they experience in their faith. What challenge or struggle? The contention they have over their past.
Some have acknowledged how their past life, their past sins, their old ways weigh heavy on them and their conscience. I hear such reports and my heart goes out to them. What have they been taught I wonder? Do they not understand who they are in Him?
Religion prides itself in reminding believers how unworthy they are. Most of their message center around how people aren't measuring up. How they are letting God down. How they are losing ground because of their unfaithfulness. I believe many feel they have not had a real church experience unless they were made to feel guilty, small, and unworthy at some point.
Cutting through all the traditions of men and relinquishing religious mindsets we can bring freedom when people realize what it means to be a New Creation in Him. With that, we must really understand what happens at the New Birth. Paul explains our state before and after salvation comes.
Paul masterfully reveals our condition. We were dead, that is spiritually separated by our sinful deeds and sin nature. It wasn't just our actions and thinking that were wrong. Our spirit man was separated, we had a sinful nature. It wasn't just what we did but who we were that needed redemption.
That is why salvation is more than just forgiveness of sin. Many traditional churches seem to say salvation is merely being forgiven of sins. But if you pardon a criminal the desire to commit a crime will still exist. We needed more than forgiveness. We needed total transformation.
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) Ephesians 2:5 NKJV
The New Creation is when we receive total forgiveness but also a recreated human spirit. God comes in and makes us completely new. He deposits within us all we will ever need to be a successful, fruitful Christian. He sanctifies us once for all time. He makes us the very righteousness of God in Him, just as righteous as Jesus. He washes us with His precious blood cleansing us from all sin. We are totally remade new, with the fruit of His love shed abroad in our heart. His faith is within us, and His Spirit makes His abode in us. This is the Good News of New Creation realities.
We are completely new. Our past is over. Our sins are as far as the east is from the west. Our sins are forgiven forever. Our past is cleansed and the guilt and shame removed. Our present is victorious as we are approved of God. Our future is bright because He holds our tomorrow and has gone before us in goodness and favor. All things are made new.
What we must caution against is misunderstanding what it means to be new. Some translate 2 Corinthians 5 as being a new life. It is if we understand it's speaking of a brand new spirit. However, some view the new as a new way of living.
This is where tradition turns the Good News into bad news. They see Paul's words and assume they mean a brand new way of living. Well, when the person claiming faith in Christ, doesn't measure up to the standards men have set, that person's salvation is now in question.
Now the New Creation is measured by how faithful one is, how fruitful one is. What they are confusing is a New Creation and a renewed mind. It is only right believing and right thinking that produces right living.
What happens in the New Birth is your spirit is recreated and all things are made new inwardly. Some habits drop off almost instantly. However, spend some time with this babe in Christ in traffic. Or in a long line at a business or gov't building. The patience Christ produces hasn't developed yet. Saying no to certain temptations can still be a struggle.
What we mustn't do is use this time to claim these weren't obviously saved. Some will be so glad to see Bob the drunk come to church. They get real estatic when he walks the aisle receiving Jesus. Then next week or so and we see Bob drinking, so many would say well he must have not got it, he must not have been sincere, he must not be saved.
However, if they spoke with Bob, they'd see getting drunk now just doesn't feel the same. Sure he got the buzz, but it just didn't feel right. It wasn't as fun. That's God teaching him not man and their wagging fingers.
Want to see fruit? Don't put burdens on people. Just remind them of who they are already. Focus the new believer on renewing their mind. Remember God changes us from the inside out not outward rules that are somehow supposed to produce change.
In summation, in Christ, we are brand new. The reality of the New Creation is a vital truth we as believers need to major in. If people just knew they were made completely new and totally forgiven the burdensome reminders of their past would fall away. Believer in Christ, you are a new species of being. Righteous, approved, accepted a brand new person from the inside out.
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