Title: “A New You in 2023” Scripture: II Cor. 5:17
Type: Special Occasion Where: GNBC 1-1-23
Intro: Today is New Year’s Day 2023. I am glad that you were all very sensible and went to bed at a reasonable hour so you could be here this morning! This is from Barna research from about 10 years ago: “When it comes to the types of resolutions people make, Americans not surprisingly focus on self-oriented changes. Among those planning to make resolutions, the top pledges for 2011 relate to weight, diet and health (30%); money, debt and finances (15%); personal improvement (13%); addiction (12%); job and career (5%); spiritual or church-related (5%); and educational (4%). Personal improvement responses included being a better person; giving more; having more personal or leisure time; organizing their life or home; and having a better life in general. Hardly anyone polled spoke of wanting to improve relationships with others. There were virtually no mentions of volunteering or serving others; only a handful of comments about marriage or parenting; no responses focusing on being a better friend; and only a small fraction of people mentioned improving their connection with God. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, explained these findings: "Only 9 out of more than 1,000 survey respondents -- that's not quite one percent -- mentioned that one of their objectives for next year was getting closer to God in some way. Even in the rare instance when people mention spiritual goals, it is often about activity undertaken for God, rather than a personal pursuit of God or an experience with God." Can I let you in on a little secret? You may change the outward shape of your body. May get healthier. May change your financial bottom line. May gain new hobby or cross an item off your “bucket list”. You may get into a self help progam. All of those are good. But won’t change YOU!
Prop: Examining II Cor. 5:17 we’ll realize 4 ways life in Christ offers us something “new”.
BG: 1. II Cor. was one of a series of 3 letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church.
2. Church was large and prosperous. Many new converts. Some trouble as well.
3. IN chapter 5 Paul speaks of the coming judgment but also assures of the transformation for all who are in Christ.
Prop: Let’s examine II Cor. 5:17 so as to realize 4 ways life in Christ offers us something “new”.
I. A New Opportunity: “If any man be in Christ”
A. New Year Affords Us the Impetus to Consider a New Opportunity.
1. A New Opportunity Awaits those who are “in Christ”.
a. Illust – At New Year many people reflect on a desire to change some perceived troubled area of their lives. We may be unsatisfied. We may want a challenge. The majority desire to lose some weight, others may want to learn a language, some focus on learning a new skill or hobby, some feel stifled in a career and looking for a new opportunity, some recognize their spiritual emptiness and resolve to attempt to “know God” or “become more spiritual” in the ensuing year.
b. The Good News of the Gospel is this: A free offer of the Gospel is available to you…right here, and right now! “”If any man…” Let those three words sink into your heart and soul. Any man, any woman. Christ has paid redemption’s price and offers it to you today.
2. The Exclusive Orientation of the Gospel must be noted: “in Christ”.
a. The effectual basis of the Gospel is conditional to our being “in Christ”. So maybe we should ask what, exactly, does it mean to be “in Christ”?
b. The believer’s union with Christ is one of the most important concepts we can grasp. Our justification is only possible because when we are united with Jesus by faith, we share in and possess His righteousness. Our continued walk in the Christian life, our sanctification, is dependent on that union’s continuation. Illust – Jn. 15:4-5 – Christ is like a vine. We are to abide in Him. By doing such we produce fruit. Apart from Him nothing.
B. Friend, do You Need an New Opportunity in Your Life Today?
1. Are you satisfied with where you are Spiritually, or are you looking for something more?
a. Many people falsely assume they must “get right” in their life (Whatever that means!) before they can come to Christ. This is NOT true. (Read Phil. 3:8-11). Paul made it very clear this righteousness is not based on my obedience to the Law, but rather thru “faith in Christ” – grace!
b. The gospel is that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture, that He was buried, and that He was raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:3–4). The heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ Himself—the person and work of Christ, the sin-bearing work of Christ, as well as the perfection of His life that is imputed to those who believe.
2. Have You Availed Yourself of the free Opportunity to be “in Christ”?
a. Illust- How many of us this morning gave a gift card as a present to a friend or loved one this Christmas? What I tell you next may change your mind for the future! One study says that 47% of all gift cards go unused! Isn’t that funny? Someone is given a card. The price has been paid. However, some obstacle, some impediment stands in way. Possibly just laziness or forgetfulness. How true this is in the spiritual life as well. The price has been paid. The gift has been offered. You simply need to act upon it!
b. Out of the Reformation, Protestant Christians identified 5 Solas of the Faith. Sola is Latin for “alone”. 3 of those Solas included, sola fide, sola gratia, and solus Christus are the heart of the gospel. In other words, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That is the synopsis, in its most succinct form, of what the gospel is.
C. Applic: I love the welcome signs as you come into Iowa! (Especially from Illinois!) “Fields of opportunity.” (Low taxes, low cost of living, great education, etc.) Iowa isn’t Heaven, but Jesus died so you can go! My friend a new opportunity awaits you today. Have you ever trusted Christ?
II. A New Identity: “he is a new creature”
A. A New Identity Awaits the Man or Woman in Christ.
1. God Promises to Make us a New person in Jesus Christ.
a. Illust – 1993 film, “The Fugitive” Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Ford stars as Dr. Richard Kimble, who has been falsely accused, tried, and sentenced for the murder of his wife. As he is being transported to prison the bus crashes and Kimble is able to make his escape after saving a guard’s life. He goes on the lam and assumes a new identity and works as a janitor so he can attempt to find the real killer. Exciting movie. Assuming a new identity key to the plot.
b. Coming to Christ involves more than simply assuming a new identity. Coming to Christ offers you and me something more, something greater, something permanent, eternal, and everlasting!
2. Christ Offers more that a New Identity, He Offers you and me a New Nature!
a. “new creature” – NASB. “kaine ktisis” – Our pre-Christian condition, spiritual and moral, are done away with thru our union with Jesus Christ. The spiritual nature and life of the believer are constituted anew so that Xst now lives in us (Gal. 2:20) thru His Spirit (Rom. 8:9). Not only sin passed, but everything has been made new! You are a new person in Christ.
b. We need to realize that our old nature kept us from God. That nature must be dealt a death’s blow. Further, Paul says that our old man “was crucified with Christ.” (Gal. 2:20) But how can that be? We were not there at Golgotha and this is surely the time to which the past tense was crucified points.13 Answer: the “with Christ” language relates us to Christ and his death in a legal or forensic way, not experientially.14 God reckoned us there as co-crucified with Christ: his death was our death. The passive voice suggests that it was something done to us (by God) and not something we did to ourselves (cf. Gal 5:24). (Greg Herrick article, “The Old and New”)
B. Friend, Let Me ask You , Where are you looking in hopes of Finding Your Identity?
1. The World Offers an Array of Areas in Which One May Attempt to Find His/Her Identity.
a. Illust – Today, people try to find their identity in a variety of sources. Ethnicity, Sexuality, Identity Politics, Work/Profession/Career, Relationships, Education, Sports, Financial Independence, even Family, Ultimately, each of those areas are limited at best, and frustratingly depressing at worst.
b. “There are at least two important aspects to the expression “one new man.” The “one” implies singleness of divine purpose and unity in the new community. The “new man” evokes images related to the dawn of the “new” age of salvation inaugurated at Messiah’s first coming. It is an idea closely associated with God’s creative work (i.e., “to create in himself….”). Our salvation is described in Ephesians 2:10 as being “created in Christ Jesus” (2:10). According to 2 Cor 5:17 we are “new” creations in Christ Jesus.” (Herrick, ibid)
2. The Individual In Christ has a New Identity and Nature.
a. A relationship with Christ gives one a new aim and a new center for our lives! We no longer live for ourselves but for Christ. Everything looks different when our focal point is shifted. Illust – I am near sighted. As a result, to see properly, a doctor changes my focal point thru corrective lens. Otherwise I don’t see correctly. The most dissatisfying life is the life lived with “self” as the focal point.
b. Illust: When we are in Christ we love new things. We have new affections and a new devotion. Sometimes its almost scary how differently you can view things and how we can change! I have an Oak Tree I planted nearly 15 yrs ago. This type of Oak doesn’t drop its leaves in the Fall, but keeps most thru the winter. However, in the Spring, when sap runs and rises, it pushes off those old, dead leaves, and causes new buds to form. That’s similar to the HS’s work in the believer. Christ comes into our lives and begins to work from the inside out, pushing out and off all that is part and parcel of the “old man”, creating a “new man” from within.
C. Applic: We become a “new creature” when Christ takes up residence in our lives, creating new life with a new nature from within, giving us new affections and desires without.
III. A New Start: “the old things passed away”.
A. Life in Christ Offers a New Start for the Believer.
1. Have you Ever Wanted to Have a New Start in Your Life?
a. Illust: Over Holidays we watched one of my favorite film adaptations of literature, the late 1990’s BBC, “David Copperfield”. One of Copperfield’s most memorable characters is the irrepressible Mr. Wilkins Micawber, who optimistically believes, “something will turn up”. Sadly, nothing seems to and Micawber and his family are always selling silverware and furniture to stave off the bill collectors. Finally he is incarcerated and put in debtor’s prison. After performing a monumental favor, and exposing fraud, corruption and extortion in a firm, he and his family are blessed with a benefactor who agrees to pay their passage to Australia, where they can get a new start in the colony. There in the new land with the new opportunities he rise to a very prominent position. Wilkins Micawber needed a new start in life!
b. Many of us have struggled similarly to or even more than Dicken’s fictional favorite. We have made a wreck of our lives, destroyed relationships, hurt people. We feel awful and feel trapped and feel guilty, and no way to get rid of those feelings. Yes there is! Turn to Christ! Let Him cause those “old things to pass away”.
2. What exactly does Paul mean by this somewhat stilted phrase?
a. When we come to Christ, “the old things passed away”- old things literally mean “the ancient things”. The ancient attempts at righteousness.
b. Here is the truth. “Before Christ came into your life, you were biologically alive, but spiritually dead. Now, in Christ, you are both biologically and spiritually alive. You are a new person. There is a radical discontinuity, however, it is not a total discontinuity. The “old man/self”, has been dealt a mortal blow. His total destruction is certain, but he is not yet dead. The conflict of the Christian life is a struggle with sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us yet sin is still in us.” (RC Sproul)
B. How Does this Apply to My Life?
1. What does this statement mean?
a. Maybe we need to look a little deeper at what these “old things” are to which the apostle alludes. I have spoken a bit about the old nature with its sin and how the new nature deals it a death blow and renews us from within.
b. Now, I am not sure, but I believe the “old things” that Paul is speaking of here is NOT necessarily our sin nature, but something equally avaricious. I think Paul is referring here to those things we think we bring with us into the faith, things we wrongly suppose make us superior to some other saints. The “old things” Paul refers to are “good things,” as men view them, which they suppose gives them some ground for pride or boasting. What kind of things might Paul have in mind? We see a good example in chapter 11, verse 22. Those who oppose Paul were proud that they are “Hebrews,” “Israelites,” and “descendants of Abraham.” They are proud of their Jewishness, as though this makes them superior to Gentiles. (Bob Deffinbaugh, “Out with the Old…”)
2. Paul wants us to Focus on What God Has Provided for our Salvation.
a. Illust: Have you ever gone to a bank for a loan? Possibly for a car or home or some business opportunity. Depending on the greater the value of the loan, what does the banker want to know about you? Your assets! He or she will ask about your income and how long have worked at that job, how many accounts and value of them, property you have. Why? Want to know if you are a “good or bad risk” for the loan.
b. I believe Paul says essentially the same thing in our text: the “assets” a man brings to the cross are not what saves him, but only the assets which God has provided in the cross. What a man was before his identification with our Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection contributes nothing to his standing before God or men in Christ. When we are joined to Christ by faith, the old creation dies with Christ, and a whole new creation comes into being. What we were before our salvation—no matter how good or great it may appear to men—means nothing in regard to our status in Christ. Every Christian is on the same footing before God, and that footing is the work of Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection in the sinner’s place. There is absolutely no basis for pride, because it is the result of His grace.
C. Applic: Do you want a fresh start in your life? Have a lot of past wish would go away? Come to Christ.
IV. A New Future: “behold, new things have come”.
A. A New Hope Awaits the Man or Woman in Christ.
1. Let’s look at what Paul means here. The fundamental problem with any form of works righteousness, even attempt to adhere to Mosaic law, it is not sufficient to change the human heart. Jeremiah stated it well when he said, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) Think of someone who is angry or jealous. Is the heart issue corrected by telling that one, "Now don't be angry?" or "Beware the green eyed monster?" Usually exact opposite! Making us more angry or jealous? This is the weakness of law; it only identifies sin, but does not promote changed behavior. But the promise of the New Covenant and a New Spirit means we can change and become better people in and thru Christ.
2. The Holy Spirit is the active agent of change in the believer and works directly against the natural heart. Paul writes: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)
B. A New Future awaits the Man or Woman in Christ.
1. As Adam in reverse, Christ has given us a new present reality as well as a new future. Christ appeared if you please as “Adam in reverse”, undoing what Adam did, regaining what Adam lost, restoring to man what was forfeited by Adam.” What Christ did becomes yours and mine by our union with Him. This covenant gives us an eternal and secure future in Him and all the blessings that are His. If you want a list of those benefits, look to Ephesians 1.
2. Find your fresh start, your new you, in Jesus Christ.
a. Can I offer you something new today? Are you tired of your old life? Do you want the new life? Are you tired of being alienated from God? Do you want new? Are you tired of the pattern of ruined relationships? Do you want new? Are you tired of addictions ruling and reigning supreme in your life? Do you want new? Turn to Christ!
b. Illust: A few years before John Newton died, a friend was having breakfast with him. Their custom was to read from the Bible after the meal. Because Newton’s eyes were growing dim, his friend would read, then Newton would comment briefly on the passage.
The day the selection was from 1 Corinthians 15. When the words “by the grace of God I am what I am” were read, Newton was silent for several minutes. Then he said, “I am not what I ought to be. How imperfect and deficient I am! I am not what I wish to be, although I abhor that which is evil and would cleave to what is good. I am not what I hope to be, but soon I shall put off mortality, and with it all sin. Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor yet what I hope to be, I can truly say I am not what I once was: a slave to sin and Satan. I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge that by the grace of God I am what I am!”
C. Applic:
