Christ's New Creations

I. Introduction
 A. 2 Corinthians 5:17–18a Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God. (Repeat)
 B. Glorious things of thee are spoken: the Bible says some glorious things about those who are in Christ. And this verse gives us one of those glorious things.
 C. Becoming a Christian is more than a shift in what one believes. It is more than the adoption of a new moral standard. It is more than entrance into a new community. It is becoming a new person: "the old things pass away, behold new things have come."
 D. Once we are in Christ we act differently, we think differently, we relate differently, we view things differently. We’ve been changed. We’ve been made new.
 E. So we now see things from a new and higher perspective. We are given a new vantage point from which to view the world. The Son has risen in our hearts and His gleaming rays make everything look bright and different. We have "the mind of Christ" (1Cor.2:16).
II. If verses like this were all we had, we might conclude that this miraculous work of God in the human heart eradicated all of the sinful aspects and tendencies of our hearts and lives.
 A. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
 B. And Romans 6:6 – “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.”
 C. But the fact that Paul is writing this to the Corinthians is proof enough that this isn’t the case.
 D. Plus there are many other Scriptures which talk very differently.
  1. There are verses like Ephesians 4:22-24 which speak about the old self as something we still struggle with, telling us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires...and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Cf. Col.3:5-17)
 E. Romans 7:17-21 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
  1. You can’t just pay attention to some of the things this says and ignore other things.
  2. On the one hand it says that when I sin, it’s not actually me who’s sinning, but it’s sin within me. So there the me is the new me.
  3. But then it goes on to refer to the flesh as me in v.18.
  4. Then the I in v.19-21 is sometimes the old man and sometimes the new.
  5. The fact is, there are two selves here. As Gal.5:17 says, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.”
 F. But it is also true that the new self is the truer self. The old self may still have to be resisted, but it has received a mortal wound and it will eventually be gone. The new self, on the other hand, is the self of the future. It is growing and deepening, and will expand and eventually hold absolute sway.
III. Let’s think about this amazing work God does in the human heart a little more deeply.
 A. The Bible uses a number of images to speak about this change which Paul here calls a new creation.
  1. New birth (John 3:1-8)
  2. Life from the dead – Eph.2:5
  3. Circumcision of the heart – Deut.30:6, Rom.2:25-29
  4. Heart of stone turned into heart of flesh – Ezek.36:26
  5. Put a new spirit in you – Ezek.36:26
  6. Given a new heart to know God – Jer.24:7
  7. The Lord opening the heart to respond to the gospel – Acts 16:14
 B. But exactly what kind of change is this?
  1. It's certainly not a change in our bodies or our brains. But we are more than bodies. We are body and soul. And souls are not material but spiritual. Some think talk of spiritual things is talk of make believe.
  2. Are we talking about a psychological change? Well, that's an interesting question. The English word psychological comes from the Greek word PSUCHE, meaning soul. And when the field of psychology began, scientists believed in the soul. But today the evolutionary world view is prevailing in America. And so psychology has become the study of the brain, not the soul.
  3. So, in today’s language, it’s not merely a psychological change. It's a change of the soul.
 C. In our souls we were dead in sin, dead toward God, and now we have been made alive in Christ (Eph.2:1-5).
  1. All this is from God (5:18a). Just as the original creation was a result of His divine fiat (fiat?), so the creation of light and life in a dead-in-sin human soul is a result of a divine fiat: "For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." (2Cor.4:6)
  2. We will be fully resurrected on the last day, when Christ returns, but we who are in Christ have been partially resurrected already. The resurrection process has already begun – in our hearts.
  3. We have come alive in Christ. And His life has begun to flow into us, empowering us to live new lives. transforming us from the old man who did everything according to the flesh into a new man who operates according to the Spirit of Christ.
  4. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions&desires." (Gal.5:24)
  5. "Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin." (Romans 6:6-7)
IV. This is one of the most beautiful things Christ does.
 A. So many precious stories of regeneration: my story, Trypuc, Katie K hearing God’s voice, Solomon
 B. This is the greatest miracle God does on the earth.
  1. Healing the human heart is far greater than healing the human body.
   a. There are things medical science can do today which would have required a miracle a while ago.
  2. Opening a heart of stone is far greater than opening the Red Sea.
  3. Giving eternal life to one dead in sin is far greater than giving a few more years of life to one physically dead.
 C. This is such a great miracle that it is prophesied over and over again in the OT.
  1. Deut.30:6 The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
  2. Jeremiah 24:7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
  3. Jeremiah 32:39–40 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever...And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.
  4. Ezek.36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
  5. And then there’s Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1–14), which predicts the present age, when God would bring many to life in His Son.
   a. The LORD brought him to the middle of the valley full of very dry bones. “Son of man, can these bones live?” “O Lord GOD, you know.” “Speak my word to these bones.” ” So he does. And as he speaks, there was a great rattling sound as the bones came together, and then ligaments, and then flesh came upon them, and skin covered them. And then God put breath into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
   b. “In the same way I will put my Spirit within My people, and they shall live, and know that I am the LORD.”
V. This is what it means to be in Christ: it means to be a new creation. This is what it means to be a Christian. You can identify as a Christian, you can believe all the doctrines, you can follow all the morality to a T, you can become an active member of a church, but if you haven’t been transformed by Christ into a new person, you’re not a Christian.
 A. It is offensive to some folks when you talk like this. “Who are you to decide who is a Christian!”
  1. I’m not deciding who is a Christian. I’m just telling you what God says in His word.
 B. You see, when God tells us what a word means, we have no right to change the definition.
  1. The Bible tells us what marriage is, and if we point to something else and say it’s marriage, that doesn’t make it marriage. What marriage is is not up to us.
  2. 1John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If I decide I’m not a sinner, that doesn’t mean I’m not a sinner. In fact, it proves I’m not a Christian. The truth of Christ is not in me. I can protest and say, “Yes, it is!” but that doesn’t change it.
  3. If the Bible tells us what a Christian is, then people don’t have a right to call themselves Christians based on their own standards.
  4. Born-again Christian is not a subset of Christian. All true Christians are born-again Christians.
  5. It’s not a matter of how you identify yourself, it’s a matter of how Christ identifies you.
  6. I grew up in the Unitarian church. Most of the people in the church were atheists, but the Unitarian Church was originally started as a church for folks who believed in God but didn’t believe that Jesus was divine.
   a. The big question the church was always asking itself was whether Unitarians should consider themselves Christians, as if the definition of Christian was up to them.
  7. You can call yourself a Christian all day long, but if He hasn’t miraculously regenerated your heart so that you know Him and now live in Christ, the Bible says you’re not a Christian.
VI. My beloved friends in Christ, if Christ is real, and if Christ meant what He said, then we are new creations. Even if you haven’t had a dramatic regeneration experience, if you love Jesus, then you are a new creation in Christ. That’s what God says.
 A. This is something to celebrate! God has worked a great miracle in your life! He has raised you from death to life!
  1. Now you’re not yet who you should be, but you surely aren’t who you used to be!
  2. The Lord has already begun the work of turning you into a masterpiece! 
 B. This also means a lot of things must change in our lives. If Christ is in us, we are not slaves of our old sinful patterns. We are alive in Christ — there is no place for lifelessness and hopelessness. 
 C. New creatures should act new. We are not who we used to be. The old must be resisted. The new must be encouraged.
 D. "Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry..., put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him (it)." (Col.3:5-10)
 E. We have two natures: the old flesh and the new creation. Feeding the dog you want to win.
 F. If you belong to Christ, you are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
 G. So put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. And put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. – Ephesians 4:22–24