A first time for everything...

So a couple of Sundays ago, when I was apologizing for my long absence, I mentioned that I would soon be preaching my first "mini-sermon". I think it came up again when I started my two-part blog about male leadership in the home. Well, you know what they say... time flies when you procrastinate. Or something like that.

In less than 48 hours, I'll be... preaching on 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 and what it means to be a "new creation".

Anyway, in less than 48 hours, I'll be standing in front of one of our pastors and a dozen or more men from my church, preaching on 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 and what it means to be a "new creation". I thought I'd take a few minutes here to share some of what I'll be talking about.

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First - the nature of our new creation.

It doesn’t take a seminary education to recognize that the nature of our new creation clearly isn’t physical. Just like upgrading the operating system on a computer, our “hardware” remains the same. So what is it that is newly created? Well, it helps to remember who we really are in the first place. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” It is our soul - our spirit, then - that is the subject of the new creation. Paul talks about this earlier in 2 Cor 5. In verses 1 to 5, he talks about “the [temporary] tent that is our earthly home”, and compares it to the permanent house or “heavenly dwelling” that we have eternally in heaven. He expresses our common desire “that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” - that is, by real, eternal life.

Second - the means of our new creation.

Of course, this just brings us to our next question; how, or by what means, have our souls been newly created?

Paul tells us that our new creation is contingent on our being “in Christ”. We are a new creation because we are in Christ. To understand this, let’s back up just two verses from our reading to verse 14 where we see that “[Christ] has died for all, therefore all have died.” Though he doesn’t go deeper into this concept in 2 Cor. 5, we can understand what this means by looking at a few other passages.

• Romans 6:3-4a -- Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death...
• Galatians 2:20a -- I have been crucified with Christ...
• Colossians 2:12 -- having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

So we have been baptized into Christ’s death, buried with him, and raised with him through faith. What does this result in for us?

• Romans 6:4b -- in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• Romans 6:11 -- So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• Ephesians 4:22 -- Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.
• Galatians 2:20b -- It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
• And, bringing it back around to 2 Cor 5:17 -- The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

It’s important to remember, though, that this act - being placed in Christ - happens, as Paul reminds us in Titus 3:5, not because “of works done by us in righteousness, but according to God’s own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”.

Did you catch those two words? Regeneration and renewal? Sounds a lot like “a new creation” to me.

Third - the purpose of our new creation.

We’ve seen that our new creation is spiritual in nature, and that it’s occurred because we’ve been placed in Christ. But what is the purpose of our being created anew?

Let's look at 2 Cor 5:15 where Paul tells us that “he [Christ] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” Now that we are in Christ, we are to live for Christ.

But how does Paul describe living for Christ? What would our lives look like if we were no longer living for ourselves, but for Him who for our sake died and was raised? Scripture gives us a lot of reasons, but let's focus on just those we find here in the fifth chapter:

• Trust in His word. Verse 7 reminds us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” That is, we live our lives based on confident trust in God’s promises, even when we cannot yet see their fulfillment.
• Look forward to His presence. Paul says that “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” - we live for Christ now, while looking forward to one day living with Him.
• Make your goal His pleasure. We ought to agree with Paul when he says that “we make it our aim to please him." We should live our lives with the intention of bringing God glory and delight through our actions and attitudes each and every day.
• Be controlled by His love. In verse 14, we are told that “the love of Christ controls us." In other words, we are no longer motivated by our own worldly ‘loves’ or desires, but by the love of Him who “for our sake died and was raised.” As we see in Titus 2:11-12, we are to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
• Faithfully preach His gospel. The passage reaches its climax here where we learn that we need to be "ambassadors of Christ… imploring others on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Having been placed in Christ, it is now our task - our joy! - to preach the gospel message to others so that they might also be a new creation in Christ.

Living for Christ -- that is why our souls have been made a new creation in Him.