Extreme Makeover
2 Corinthians 5:17
January 27, 2013
Quite awhile ago I talked about the program Extreme Home Makeover. It’s so cool to see how a home is torn down and Ty Pennington and his crew take over and create something that wows everyone. Those are obviously extreme situations. But we do it in our lives as well. We will renovate bathrooms and kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and more. Sometimes we just gut the room and start over to create something great.
But we go beyond that don’t we? We look at ourselves, and we don’t like what we see, so we start to change ourselves. We look at the exterior. We get a new wardrobe, we start exercising to lose weight, we change our hair color, maybe we have surgery so we can have a more drastic change. We do all of this so that we can feel better about ourselves.
It’s usually much easier to look at the exterior and see what’s wrong, and start to fix it, but we neglect to look at what type of makeover needs to occur in our interior. You see, it’s always easier, albeit, more expensive to make changes to the exterior.
God is also in the extreme makeover business. He's in the business of transforming your life and mine. God sees possibilities in you and me that we often miss when we look at ourselves. He’s also able to do for you and me what we can’t do for ourselves. And God is able to pay the price for what He does. We can't afford the price. He paid it for us, by sending His Son to die for us. But His makeover is a little bit different in one area. The reality show makeover is external. God's is internal. He makes you a new person from the inside out.
This theme runs throughout the Bible. It’s from beginning to end. We have the opportunity to join God and find new life in Him. It started with the first sin, when Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. satan told Eve that God didn't want her to be just like Him. But Adam and Eve bought into the lie, so they ate — and discovered evil.
The Bible reminds us, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) and "None is righteous. No, not one" (Romans 3:10). We know that about ourselves. We don't have to be told. None of us is perfect, and that imperfection separated us from the God who created us. Here is a righteous, holy God, and on the other side are you and I, sinners, and there is a chasm between us.
The good news is that God has taken action on our behalf. He promised Adam and Eve that someone would come — a second Adam who would crush the head of the serpent. The Old Testament people lived in anticipation of the Messiah. That's what it's about — God coming and dying for the sins of the world. The Scripture says, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). That is great news.
This is God's extreme makeover. This extreme interior makeover means we have to change. In other words, we become new creations. One of my favorite verses is involves us becoming new creations. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17) In other words, you can be a brand new you!
I love what this verse says, but, it’s kind of like, so what? I mean, I think about life, I think about you and me; and I wonder how much have we let go of the old things, because if we were all to be honest, we may wonder about how we’ve changed since we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
And most of the time it’s easier to make an extreme exterior makeover, than an extreme interior makeover. It’s easier to buy new furniture, to redo a room, to change our hair, or whatever external, as opposed to working on the real issues which are internal.
Paul tells us ~ if you are in Christ then you are a new creation. It seems to me we need to start with a look at answering the question are you in Christ? Do you know Jesus, and does He know you? Not do you know about Him, but do you KNOW Him?
This isn’t just head knowledge, because the image the Bible gives us about our relationship with Jesus is that it is an intimate one. It’s one where the heart, the spirit, the head and the whole body are given to Jesus. So, to know Jesus is more than just intellectualism, it’s giving our whole being to Jesus.
And when we do this, when we proclaim Jesus as first in our lives, as the One who forgives us and offers us grace, love, power, peace, courage and more ~ we should change. If we don’t, what does that say about the work of Christ in our lives and our acceptance of Jesus in our lives?
Paul helps us along by reminding us the old is gone. Those old things we struggle with, those old sin issues, should pass away, they should have been put away in the garbage or burned in the fireplace. That’s part of the beauty in the image of baptism, as we look at the old person going under water, and the new person in Christ, coming up. Now, why is that?
Because if we are in Christ, then we are a new creation. That very moment when we proclaim Jesus is the Son of God, the One who came from heaven, who lived and died and was resurrected from the dead, who ascended to heaven to be with the Father . . . when we proclaim that we are reconciled to God, we become part of His family and are one of His adopted kids. We also become a new creation. Our heart has now been given over to God, our whole life, our way of thinking . . . everything is placed into God’s hands, and we are made new.
Don’t you love that?!?! It’s God’s gift to you and me. But here’s part of the problem, sometimes we just don’t put the old stuff away. We don’t throw it away, instead we store it in a file drawer. You see, it’s not out of the house. And when I say that, our house is our brain. We compartmentalize all of these old sin issues, all of those things satan wants us to believe which are bad about ourselves and we believe them.
In Romans 7, Paul said this about himself,
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.
You see, Paul struggled with letting go of his sin issue. We’re not alone. We all go through this and sometimes we are more successful at letting it go, but so many times, we have difficulty living that new creation life.
Just a couple of things I want to conclude with ~ we need to remember we are new creations. When we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, He comes into our lives, and promises us He will never, ever leave us. That’s His promise of faith that we need to hold onto. And He gives us the power to overcome the temptations placed before us.
You see, the extreme interior makeover we get is forgiveness from God and reconciliation with God. You know what it’s like when you and another person are angry and you’re not talking to one another. When the ice is broken and the relationship is mended it feels so great. That’s what we get with God. In a very real sense, we once were enemies with God, but now we are His kids, dearly loved; and viewed by God as holy and pure, and cleansed by the death of His Son. We are given amazing spiritual power, if we would only believe that.
The makeover we all need is not about the exterior. Yes, maybe we’re a little worn, a little beaten up on the exterior. But those are our battle scars. They show we’ve lived life. We’ve not only survived, but we’ve thrived . . . because we have a relationship with Jesus.
The greatest way to show ourselves and the world is by the fruit we bear. Our we making a difference somewhere in the world?
I’m fascinated with the story of Chuck Colson. He became the lawyer for the President for the United States, Richard Nixon. That was the peak of everything he had dreamed of in this world. He saw his hero begin to spiral downward, caught in the web of Watergate. When Colson realized he was going to be subpoenaed, he didn't know what to do. So he talked with a friend of his, who said, "Chuck, you need what I've discovered. You need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
Colson was a nominal Roman Catholic believer. He wasn’t active. He was a cynic. He was suspicious of people who had religious conversions, and he would have ignored his friend if it weren't for two things: Tom Philip's life had changed, and he was a friend who was trying to help. Eventually, Colson asked Jesus Christ into his life. He admitted his sin and put his trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and asked him for this extreme makeover.
Many in the government and press didn’t believe Colson’s conversion was sincere. They felt he was trying to get out of a longer prison sentence. Eventually Colson admitted to doing things during his trial that he was never asked, but he felt it was his duty as a Christian to tell the whole truth.
When asked about his conversion and if he was sincere, Colson said, “See what I'm doing ten years from now.”
Almost 40 years later you can see the impact Colson made throughout the United States with his Prison Ministry and other ministries. The fruit of his new creation is obvious.
What fruits are we bearing because the old is gone and the new has come. All because we are in Christ. When we are in Christ, what does that mean? To help you see how great it is to be in Christ, look at these scriptures as we close ~
In Christ Jesus you were given grace before the world was created. 2 Timothy 1:9, “He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”
In Christ Jesus you were chosen by God before creation. Ephesians 1:4, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.”
In Christ Jesus you are loved by God with an inseparable love. Romans 8:38–39, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ Jesus you were redeemed and forgiven for all your sins. Ephesians 1:7, “In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
In Christ Jesus you are justified before God and the righteousness of God in Christ is imputed to you. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In Christ Jesus everything you really needed will be supplied. Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ Jesus the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ Jesus you have eternal life. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ Jesus you have become a new creation and an adopted child of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Let's celebrate that as we pray . . .
