Metamorphosis 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Transform, change, be different, it is a way of life for us… we don’t want to be who we are and we will try all sorts of things to change. Crash diets, plastic surgery, new hairdos, new clothes. In truth we really want to just change the outside covering.
But some try to do it internally - Americans spend $50 million a year on subliminal message tapes designed to help them do everything from improve their self-image to stop smoking. But there’s no hidden message in the National Research Council’s verdict on such techniques. The Council’s report, released in September 1992, concludes that subliminal messages simply don’t work. They don’t deliver the life-transforming power they promise.
A man was selling an old warehouse, the building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Gangs had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and thrown trash everywhere.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, The man took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
“Forget about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.
Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse that is slated for the wrecking ball.
When we become God’s, the old life is over, He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.
But the Bible does tell us how we can truly change - 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that first it is Christ… that –
If we are IN Christ – We are in a RELATIONSHIP.
To – “be in Christ” was Paul’s most favorite expression. He used it often and to him it meant the very fact of being a Christian. To be “In Christ” is to have a close, intimate, real, relationship with Him.
We ARE a New Creation – We are RADICALLY Changed.
This is not a minor modification this is a major overhaul. You do not evolve into a Christian. Yes you should grow in your walk, your behavior in your maturity. But you are no more a Christian today than you were yesterday. Why? Because the change isn’t up to you. You don’t change yourself – you are changed.
Two LIFE – CHANGING events take place.
“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; behold, everything has become new!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
1. The old self is GONE.
Wouldn’t it be great as you got older if you could get new parts? Yes, I know that through the magic of modern medicine you can have all kind of things stretched, pulled, pinched, tucked, tweaked, enhanced, suctioned and peeled. But all that is only a matter of moving pieces and parts around so that no one can see the effects of how badly we have treated our bodies.
What if we could take a part of our life that we didn’t particularly care for and have it erased? Wouldn’t that be great? I mean there are things in my life that I would just as soon have never happened. And that is exactly what God does when you enter into that life-changing decision. All the old stuff of your life, all the things you wish would go away and have never happened…
It is gone, He doesn’t just forget it… it is as if it never occurred… and as far as He is concerned it never did. Then He makes…
2. Every aspect of your life is BRAND – NEW.
The change promised by God is not one where things get hidden or glossed over with enough plastic or make-up or stitches. What God is talking about is a completely new and improved you. You are not the same as you were. Old parts are not hidden but each part of your life is made new.
Have you ever watched a child come in from playing and they are absolutely covered from head to toe in mud? You tell them to go take a bath and sure enough for once they listen to you and do. But as soon as they get out of the shower they put the same clothes back on and then wonder why your upset. Unfortunately people are just like that. They ask God to change them and then go back to wearing the same old clothes.
God doesn’t clean the outer half, He doesn’t reshape it or even enhance what is already there, He works from the inside out to Re-Create.
All made possible by God’s RECONCILATION –
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ…” 2 Corinthians 5:18a
To change, exchange - Thus of people it is to change from hate to friendship, to reconcile"
We should note this distinction: God is not reconciled to man, as though God were partly to blame for the enmity. Rather, man is reconciled to God, for it is man who moved away from God!
Yet the Bible tells how GOD has taken the initiative to reconcile man back to Himself. He made the effort to change us… to “reconcile us…”
So much so that -
He became our SIN.
“Christ never sinned, but God caused him to become sin for us, so that we could be right with God in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:21(Simple English Translation)
Christ took on what we are in order that we might become what He is. Think about this for a moment… He didn’t just take our sin down with Him… He actually took it on, put it on and in Himself. All the things that you would do, He said I will become… because you will never be able to carry it of change… because you cannot create yourself…
Being a new creation is not a LABEL it is a LIFE.
“We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you--be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20
You have to:
ADMIT that you cannot make that change on your own.
Changes that you make on your own really never last. That is why I gave up making New Years resolutions, I never kept them and I hate lying. When you finally admit that you cannot change (that is save) yourself you will find that He is ready, willing and able to come in and do for you what you cannot. You just have to…
ASK for Christ to come and seal that relationship.
You can admit you’re wrong, you can admit you’re a sinner and you can admit that you cannot change that. But until you ask Christ to come into your heart and make that relationship real you will never change. You see He wants to come into your life – but you have to ask Him in… then
ALLOW God to have every area of you life.
God will not force His way into anyone’s heart. Yes, He will make you uncomfortable until you do turn it over… but He will not force you. People wonder why they struggle in an area of their life and they pray and talk and moan… but they never turn it over and allow God to change it. Because the Holy Spirit and self cannot reside in the same place… the hearts not big enough for the two of you… you will either be full Christ or full of yourself.
But the promise is that if you do allow God into every area of you life, He will radically change it and work it for your good.
You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.
What a remarkable contrast! Truly "old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Has this proved true in your life?
