“The Good & Beautiful God:
God Transforms Lives”
2 Corinthians 5:17
March 6th, 2011
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
Introduction:
> Last week we were greatly challenged to realize our powerlessness, realize our corrupted situation—that we are all weak and incapable of dealing with the sin issue in our lives.
> But, God dealt with sin and satisfied His nature to love by sacrificing Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ so that the image of God could be restored in us, setting us free from captivity to our sinfulness.
> As we receive the sacrifice of Christ, and as we participate in the sacrifice of Christ, the image of God is restored in us.
> For this reason, I love our scripture today! It is a reminder to me that I am not what I used to be before I knew Jesus as my personal savior…
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
> When we receive the sacrifice of Christ Jesus as our source of salvation, when we give up the battle for control and power, when we embrace the fact that we are powerless and we need the salvation that is offered by our self-sacrificing God, then we become a NEW CREATION!
> These are beautiful words for the believer. We are no longer what we used to be! We are no longer sinners. We are no longer enemies with God. We are no longer hopeless, weak and powerless.
> NO! We are a NEW CREATION!
Quiet now, slowly, slowly, let it build! There it is, do you hear it? The grandstands erupt with cheers and applause! <
> Where is the rejoicing and eruption of applause?
I’ll tell you were it is! For most of us here, we just don’t see it? If I’m a new creation, then why do I still struggle with the same old sins? Why is my life filled with the same old battles, and not only that, but many of them are intensified.
> In the Christian church we have resigned ourselves to be satisfied with occasional emotional hype at church if the music is loud enough and the jokes are funny enough, but we just don’t believe that church makes a whole lot of difference here below. The main reason for church and God and all that stuff is to guarantee our spot in heaven.
But, otherwise, it’s life as usual.
> Divorce is still rampant in the church.
Alcoholism is still rampant in the church.
Pornography use is still rampant in the church.
Being overextended financially is still rampant in the church.
Filthy talk and verbal abuse is still rampant in the church.
Drug addiction and prescription drug abuse is still rampant in the church.
> Families are still in ruin, lives are still a mess, and we say to ourselves, “well that was a grand experiment that didn’t work!”
> We just don’t see it. A new creation? Why isn’t my life any different?
> In fact, most churches have resigned themselves to proclaim that we are all just “sinners” to whom God has given a “pass card” because we have called out to Him.
> But sin still destroys us. So why would God want to give us a pass card to go on sinning!?
> As Paul said it best…
What should we say then? Should we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Of course not! How can we who died as far as sin is concerned go on living in it? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, through baptism we were buried with him into his death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we, too, should live an entirely new life.
Romans 6:1-4 (ISV)
> We were made for something so much better than what a life destroyed by sin can offer.
> But many of us are like James Bryan Smith’s friend, Carey, a Christian who was struggling with the problem of Pornography. He had resigned himself to the narrative that He was just a sinner deep inside. Yes, he believed in Jesus Christ and wanted to do what was right, but he had accepted Satan’s lie that at the heart of his nature was fact that he was a sinner.
> I have found that the predominant narrative in Christianity is that we are all just sinners. You know, “we’re only human.” And we believe that there is nothing we can do about our sin.
> But that is not the narrative of Scripture. God did not create us as sinners. When He created humankind, He looked at His creation and said that it was good. NO, sin corrupts us and removes the image of God. But still, at the heart, we are God’s creation, we’re just broken.
> We were not created to be sinners. We were created for so much more.
> I love the story James Bryan Smith tells of the Russian Orthodox priest, John of Kronstadt. He served the Lord during the nineteenth-century at a time when alcohol abuse was rampant. None of the priests ventured out of their churches to help the people. They waited for people to come to them. John, compelled by love, went out into the streets. People said he would lift the hung-over, foul-smelling people from the gutter, cradle them in his arms and say to them, “This is beneath your dignity. You were meant to house the fullness of God. (James Bryan Smith, “The Good and Beautiful God,” pg. 162)”
> This is a beautiful truth about who we are—we were created to house the fullness of God. Scripture says of us…
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NASB77)
> We are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We were created to house the Holy Spirit of God. We have a calling to glorify God in our body!
> When we sin, we are acting below our dignity and we are disparaging the good name of our God, our Heavenly Father.
> So how do we move from living below our dignity to living in the fullness of our Godly purpose? What must happen in order for us to rise above our sinfulness?
> We need the transformational work of God in our lives!
How can God transform us. Today’s message is entitled, “God Transforms Lives!” As we said last week, God wants to restore His glorious image in us—the Imago Dei. How will that happen?
First...
I. Recognize Our True Identity In Christ
> In order for God to transform us, we must quit identifying ourselves as sinners. We were sinners before Christ Jesus took residence in us. But when Christ enters our lives, we receive complete and total forgiveness of sin. We are no longer sinners—we receive a new name—we become Christian. The suffix “-ian” literally means “one that is of or related to the noun that the suffix is attached to.” In this case we are of Christ, related to Christ, or more appropriately “in Christ.”
> Do you know that the New Testament refers to being “in Christ” one-hundred and thirty times? This does not include the many times we are instructed to be “in the Lord” or it is said that the Lord is “in us.” Then there are the times in the gospels where we are instructed by Jesus to “remain in me [him].”
> One of the most famous of these is found in John 15 where Jesus speaks 14 times of “abiding in” Him or in His love. Lets look at those verses for a moment…
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
John 15:1-11 (NASB)
> As James Bryan Smith writes…
“Jesus (the vine) is the life force that flows into us (the branches), thus producing fruit (love, joy, peace, etc. [Gal. 5:22]). Cut off from the vine, the branches cannot produce fruit. The power of production is not in the branch just as the power to live the Christian life is not in us. In fact, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (Smith, Good and…, pg. 158-159).”
> We must stop seeing ourselves as “sinners” and realize that we have been given a new name, that of “Christian.” As James Bryan Smith writes, “Christians are not merely forgiven sinners but a new species: persons indwelt by Jesus, possessing the same eternal life that he has.”
> Therefore, we should present ourselves and our bodies over to sin no longer!
But, the Dilemma…
II. Sin Remains, But Must Not Reign
> Even though we have been given a new name and have been made a new creation, we still live with the residual affects of our old self. As Smith writes…
“...we still live in our old self’s body, which contains the remnants of sin. We still have our old narratives, our old memories and our old habits. We still live in a world that stands diametrically apposed to the truth of God. This is why we struggle with sin even after we’re regenerated.”
> In Galatians 5:17, Paul writes…
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature… For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Gal 5:13; 17-18 (NIV)
> Paul was writing to regenerated Christians, people “in whom Christ dwells.” Clearly the battle between the desire of the flesh and the purpose of the Spirit does not end when we come up from the waters of Baptism (Smith, pg. 157).
> John Wesley wrote…
“Every babe in Christ is holy, and yet not altogether so. He/[She] is saved from sin; yet not entirely: It remains, though it does not reign… We are ‘reconciled to God through the blood of the cross…’ And in that moment… the flesh has no more dominion over us. (Wesley, “On Sin in Believers,” Wesley’s Works, 3.4.3, 7, ed. Outler, vol. 1)
> But even though sin has no more dominion over us, we are still susceptible to it when we allow ourselves to be disconnected from the vine.
> Christians are shocked to find they still have a capacity, even a desire for sin after conversion. They question whether they were truly saved or not. John Wesley said that in order to be on guard against sin, we must be aware that its remnants remain. The false notion that we’re immune to sin, Wesley taught, “cuts off all watching against our evil nature, against the Delilah which we are told is gone, though she is still lying on our bosom. It tears away the shield [our shield is faith] of the weak believer, deprives them of their faith, and so leaves them exposed to all the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil (Wesley’s Works, 13.5.1).” (Smith, Good and…, pg. 158).
> The only way to prevent our lowering into the degenerate level of sin is to continually abide in Christ Jesus as He instructs us to do so in John 15!
> James Bryan Smith writes…
“To abide means to rest in and rely on Jesus, who is not outside of us, judging us, but is [living] inside of us, empowering us. The more deeply we’re aware of our identity in Christ and his presence and power with us, the more naturally we’ll do this. We must get our narratives right and practice spiritual exercises to deepen our awareness of truth. In the end, Jesus’ way is easy… We can do all things through Christ who strengthens’ us [Phil. 4:13].” (Smith, The Good…, pg. 159)
> The transformed life begins when we receive our new identity and become a new creation in Christ. We must cast aside the thought that we are “just a sinner” and begin to realize that we are now Christians, “in Christ!”
> Then we must spend every moment abiding in Christ. We must be diligent to walk hand in hand with Him, allowing Him to carry us forward, allowing Him to give us strength to reject sin which is beneath our dignity as Christians “in Christ.”
Finally, we must realize...
III. Transformation Takes Time
> Spiritual transformation is a gradual process. Yes, it requires a surrendered heart. If you are unwilling to surrender to the work of God in your life, then transformation will not take place.
> But, even the surrendered heart will take much time in the transformational process.
> That is because there are no shortcuts.
> A. H. Strong, the great Baptist theologian, told the following story…
“A student asked the President of his school whether he could not take a shorter course than the one prescribed. “Oh yes,” replied the President, “but then it depends on what you want to be. When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months.” (Smith, Good and…, pg. 186)
> Strong goes on to explain that spiritual growth, in addition to being slow, is not uniform. Some years we may experience tremendous growth, and some years we see very little change. An oak tree has only a couple of months of actual growth each year in terms of measurable expansion, says Strong. The rest of the year, the other ten months, are spent solidifying that growth (ibid., pg. 186).
> When I first became a Christian, I suppose I saw very little changes in my life. Over the years, sin still battled against the Spirit that lived inside me. In fact, there are times in my life where it looks like I took many steps backward.
> But when I look at where I am today in my spiritual walk, I see a tremendous difference from where I began.
> Yes, I am still being transformed by the work of God in my life. And, I hope that I will always be in a state of transformation as God works to make me more and more like His Son, Jesus Christ. It takes a long time for God to grow a beautiful Oak.
Conclusion:
> What about your life? Where are you in the process.
Are you still on the outside looking in? Today, if you wish to receive Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, simple invite Him to come into your heart and take Lordship over your life.
Are you a Christian struggling with sin? It’s time to change your perspective of who you are. Do not resign yourself to a lie that you are “just a sinner” doing the best you can to walk with Jesus. Realize that you have a new name. You are “Christian — In Christ!”I
Decide to Abide! Make a commitment today to spend time every day reading God’s word, meditating on God’s word, praying to God, and depending on Him. Learn to live close to the source of life!
Give it Time! Remember that an Oak doesn’t grow over night. God is not in a hurry, He simply wants a yielded soul who is willing to be transformed.
> And when you are anxious about your spiritual growth, simply put it in God’s hands and quote Philippians 1:6…
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in [me] will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Phil. 1:6 (NASB)
And also 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24…
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
1 Thess. 5:23-24 (NASB)
> The fact is, God will do it if you will simply learn to abide in Him.
Closing Prayer:
Closing Song:
