A Transformed Life
-A Fresh Start-
2 Corinthians 5:17 - “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (NLT)
One of the greatest truths in the Bible is that people can experience a transformation. In Christ we are given a new nature, a spiritual nature. When you invite Jesus into your heart and life a miracle of transformation takes place. The supernatural power of God begins a work in your life. Your life is not the same anymore, for your old life is gone. You start a new life in Christ.
The New Testament Christian was known as one that “heralded” the Gospel. To the word for “herald” in the original language is “evangel,” or “good news.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 begins with the transition word, “Therefore.” Because of what has happened we have this truth. Verses 14-16 “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
Verse 17 is possible because of the resurrection. When you receive Christ your old nature dies and you take on the new nature given by Jesus. In Christ you have a fresh start. You have a new beginning.
Jesus put a greater emphasis on spiritual life than on miracles. In Luke 10 Jesus sent 72 disciples out in teams of 2 to every town and place Jesus was planning to go. They returned with excitement and good news, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus replied, Luke 10:20, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
When the Lord forgives your sin and saves your soul it is a miracles of God’s grace. The song, “It Took a Miracle,” describes this truth:
My Father is omnipotent, And that you can’t deny; A God of might and miracles, ‘Tis written in the sky.
It took a miracle to put the stars in place, It took a
miracle to hang the world in space; But when He saved
my soul, Cleansed and made me whole, It took a miracle
of love and grace.
One way to look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 is to look at the person before Christ and the person after Christ.
I. The Person Before Christ
The Bible describes the person before Christ “is dead in trespasses and sin…strangers and foreigners to the household and family of God.” (Ephesians 2:1, 19) From Genesis to Revelation the Bible teaches that sin separates a person from God. Sin keeps us from knowing and experiencing God’s love. God loves everyone, but sin prevents us from automatically knowing and experiencing that love. God’s holiness and righteousness cannot tolerate sin. The just wages and reward of man is death, physical and spiritual death; the opposite of eternal life, an eternity separated from God.
The prophet Ezekiel described sinful humanity as “dry bones.”
Israel had rejected their true God and turned to pagan gods and idol worship. People today may not worship pagan gods and idols but idol worship is anything that a person gives allegiance to rather than God, creator of the universe or Jesus His Son.
Ezekiel declared that all who have forgotten God are like “dry bones.” Without a commitment to God people are like the created robots in the movie I-Robot. The evil robots were like machines under the control of their creator. Because of sin the human race separated from God and is under the control of Satan the god of this world.
Israel had rejected their true God and Ezekiel described them as a valley of walking skeletons. They had movement and action but no spiritual life. In the valley the prophet saw bones come together and flesh cover the bones, but there was not life in them.
The Bible declares that a person without Christ in his life is spiritually dead. The person may be strong physically and the picture of health on the outside but inside he is like a white washed tomb. Jesus called the Pharisees and Scribes white washed tombs. They knew the religious language. They kept their traditional laws. But their hearts were cold and hard.
Before Christ a person is void of spiritual life. I John 5:12 says, “He that has the Son has life, he that does not have the Son, does not have life.” Before Christ a person is like dry bones and needs to have the breath of God to take on spiritual life.
II. A Person in Christ
A person who surrenders his life to Jesus and invites Jesus to be Lord of his life becomes a brand new person. The old life and old nature pass away, and a new life in Christ begins.
Ezekiel 37 - The Lord brought the prophet Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones. The Lord said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lords says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” 37:4-6 “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.” 37:10
Our life before Christ lacks one vital think – the “breath of God.” When you become a new person in Christ, you have the “breath of God” breathed into your life. God’s breath is eternal life. “If you have the Son you have Life.”
A successful business man once said to Evangelist Billy Graham: “My life is a complete wreck. I have spent thousands of dollars this past year on psychiatrists. They cannot patch me up. I’m too far gone to save. The only hope for me is that God would remake me.”
That’s what the wonderworking power of God is all about. Remaking people and giving people a fresh start. God’s work in the human heart is a transformation from death to life. Romans 12:2 Paul describes what takes place: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” From the word “transformed” we get the word metamorphosis. A beautiful butterfly first must under go a metamorphism as a caterpillar. A caterpillar lives for himself as a harmless pest. It drinks sap from trees and plants. It crawls around looking for food.
The caterpillar gets ready for its change by making a cocoon. Out of the cocoon comes the butterfly. The butterfly is no longer limited to crawling on the ground. It flies to the heights of the trees. Have you been to the Monarch Butterfly Park in Monterey? At certain times of the year Monarch Butterflies are there by the thousands. It’s hard to image that at one time there were all ugly caterpillars.
Last Sunday we celebrated Easter. Easter is all about getting a fresh start. The Bible says that “A clean slate and a fresh start come from God by way of Jesus Christ.” In Christ we have new life. Romans 6 - “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Father, we can also live a new life.”
If you were asked: “What changed in your life when you opened up you life to God?” What would you say?
We might say when I invited Jesus into my life I began to see things from God’s perspective. I began to pray and ask the Lord to bless and guide my life.
#In 1961 Yury Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, went up, the first man to circle the earth – 89 minutes rotation around the earth. He went around one orbit, came down and said: “I looked and I looked and I looked all over the heavens and I didn’t see God anywhere.” He was looking through the eyes of an atheist. If you can’t see God there that proves there is no God.
A few months later John Glenn went up, circled the earth three times and when back on earth he said: “I saw God everywhere. I felt His presence everywhere. The heavens declare the glory of God.” A couple years later Frank Borman took the first team out of the earth’s orbit and he said, “I had this enormous feeling that there is a God and that there was a beginning to it all.” A little while after that James Irwin walked on the moon and said: “I felt the power of God as I’ve never felt it before.”
What made the difference? The Russian was looking to disprove the existence of God. The Americans were looking at God’s creation. God’s handy work was all around them. The Bible teaches that “Whoever accepts and trusts God’s Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever. But the person who avoids and distrusts God’s Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life.”
III. Rewards of Having Your Life in Christ
I Corinthians 5:17 “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!”
There are many benefits and rewards of accepting Jesus and having him in your life.
1. You have a new confidence about your future. Proverbs 3:5-6 becomes a reality in your life. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.”
When you put your life in God’s hand whatever happens to you does concern God. Romans 8:28 gives you confidence to face the future with hope. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good or those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
We see things and circumstances from our human vantage point. With God there is no time or space. We need to look at life experiences from God’s point of view and live in the light of eternity. In Christ we don’t focus on the past or even the present, we focus on the future with hope and anticipation.
2. God forgives us and gives us a new fresh start.
You know there is nothing as troubling as a guilty conscience. When you have a guilty conscience for something you have done or something you should have done but haven’t; you have a restless spirit. You don’t want to think about it, but somehow it nags at you like the pain of an abscessed tooth.
A person may put on a happy face but inside there is guilt and despair. The famous author, Ernest Hemmingway, was the model of self-sufficiency. He was hard working, enjoyed partying with lots of women and lived the life he wanted to live. A magazine ran an article on him praising his lifestyle. The article quoted the Bible saying, “The wages of sin is death. But for Ernest Hemmingway it obviously paid off.”
There was not follow up on the interview because six months later Hemmingway took a shotgun and shot himself. His last words were, “My life is as empty as a vacuum tube.” In his writings he once wrote, “I can’t stand to think that my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it.” He portrayed on the outside strength but on the inside he was crumbling.
When you experience the forgiveness of God you are set free from all condemnation. In Christ life takes on new meaning. Romans 8:1 “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ.” Through God’s grace we are forgiven and enjoy peace in our heart. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”
Here is a great mystery. When God in Christ forgives us we are made right in God’s sight. We are justified through faith. Justification means that God forgives our sin and forgets our sin and gives us a fresh start as if we have never sinned.
What a Savior! In Christ you find significance and meaning in life. In Christ you find a life worth living. I Peter 1:3 “All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.” (New Living Translation)
3. God has an eternal purpose for your life.
You can face the future with hope because God has an eternal purpose for your life. I Peter 1:3 (Message) “Because Jesus was raised from the dead we’ve been given a brand new life and we have everything to live for including a future in heaven and the future starts now.”
Nothing can give you confidence about the future like having the assurance you are a child of God. As a child of God you have a fresh start – the old life, disobedience, rebellion, self-centered living has passed away and your have a new life of obedience, surrender to God’s will for your life, and you are now committed to a Christ-centered life. You are a brand new person. You have eternal life – I John 5:11-13.
Jesus said He came to give us life, a life of adventure and the assurance of eternal life.
Baptism is a symbol of new life. From time to time we have baptisms by immersion. When a person is baptized they are saying, “I am a new person in Christ. I have a fresh start.” As the person is baptized and goes under water it is a symbolism of being buried in Christ and arising to a new life. The cleansing of the water on the outside is symbolic of the cleansing Jesus has done on the inside of a person’s heart and life.
On the back of the welcome card is a place to check if you are interested in being baptized. The first step is giving your heart to Jesus. The second step is baptism.
I encourage you to make a fresh start today. When you partake of the Lord’s supper you can confess your sins and ask God for his forgiveness. You can pray: “Lord Jesus I come to you. I confess my sins. I admit I’m a sinner. I repent and turn from all sin in my life. In invite You to come into my life and meet my deepest needs. I want to know You and learn to love and trust You. I invite you to be in charge of my life from this day forward. Amen”
