Who am I?
2 Corinthians 5 verse 17
Some of you are old enough to remember the group The Who and their song ‘Who are you?’ It got an airing at Live 8 recently. If you were asked “Who are you?” how would you answer? You could give your name but you are more than your name. You could say what you do but you are more than your occupation. You could describe yourself but you are more than just your physical appearance. You could say where you are from but geography and citizenship do not say who you are. So how would you answer that question? What determines who you are? Let me ask you another question: “Have you ever cried yourself to sleep because you felt inadequate and wished you were someone else?” Of course you have, everyone at some stage in their life has done just that. You may not have cried but you have thought what it would be like to be someone else and on some occasions it wasn’t just a nice daydream of wealth etc but a deep longing of your heart. So this morning I want from God’s Word to help you answer that question: Who am I?
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. I set the context for this letter last Sunday morning – Paul’s change in itinerary, defence of his apostleship and personal integrity. I want to concentrate this morning on verse 17, read. What is Paul speaking of here? What does he mean when he says ‘in Christ?’ What does he mean by ‘new creation?’ What is the ‘old’ that is gone and the ‘new’ that has come about in the life of those who are ‘in Christ?’ Well let us take each of those in turn and see how they add up to answer ‘Who am I?’
In Christ
You will notice that verse 17 begins with the word ‘therefore’ which connects what Paul is about to say with what he has just taught from verses 11-16. Namely that the gospel, which he has commended to their consciences, has brought about a change in how they view themselves, one another and even Christ Jesus. If you look at verse 16 you will see that there was a time in the life of Paul when he viewed Christ from a ‘worldly’ perspective. What was that perspective? Well if you turn for a moment to Acts 26 verses 9-11. Paul once opposed Christ as a false messiah and persecuted his followers but all that changed when he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. What was that change? Turn back to 2 Corinthians 5 verses 14-15, read. Paul says that Christ became sin for him and died in his place – so that verse 18 he might be reconciled to God. Therefore there was a moment in time when Paul had a broken relationship with God. There was in fact a time in the life of Paul when He was God’s enemy. That changed when he encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and he was born again. The origins of this broken relationship with God is recorded for us in Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve disobeyed acceptance by God was replaced by rejection and alienation from God and one another. The innocence of Adam and Eve was replaced with guilt and shame at their sin. Dominion over the created order was replaced by weakness and helplessness. The result of that in their lives, and the lives of all mankind ever since, has been a longing to belong – to God and to one another in community. Secondly, man’s knowledge and sense of worth, value and significance has been replaced by a sense of worthlessness and insignificance which has led man on a pursuit of power and control over self, over others and over creation. Basically the result has been man trying to be God. In order for this broken relationship to be restored Paul tells us in verse 21 that Christ became sin for mankind and took upon Himself the wrath of God. Paul says that reconciliation with God was through the self-sacrifice and substitutionary atonement of Christ (verses 14-15). Anselm’s Conundrum in Cur Deus Homo?
‘New creation’
Paul says the ‘old’ has gone and the ‘new creation’ has come into the life of those who have come to faith in Christ Jesus. If you want a picture of the old turn to Romans 1 verses 28-32, read. Is that not a picture of the world in which we live. Is it a picture of your life? If it is then you are living according to the ‘old man’ who is eternally lost and under God’s condemnation. The ‘old’ man has self as god. The ‘old’ man is alienated from God. The ‘old’ man is full of sin, guilt, and shame. The ‘old man’ judges on the outward appearance of things because he has no inward reality of the Spirit with which to make life’s decisions. He sees things from a carnal point of view. His heart, his thoughts and his desires are temporal. But Paul says for those in Christ such an attitude, such an outlook and understanding of life is gone – it has been replaced by a new creation. So what is this new creation? And how does it inform Who am I?
I think the easiest way to explain it is to say that our broken relationship with God has been restored and that our status before God is eternally changed. One set of conditions and relationships have passed out of existence and another has come to stay. Where once we were God’s enemies and the objects of His wrath we are now reconciled to Him in and through the finished work of Christ on the Cross. I want to say to you this morning that if you are in Christ Jesus, that is if you have been born again of the Holy Spirit, then satan can do nothing to change your spiritual status before God. Romans 5 verse 1 tells us that we are no longer uner God’s condemnation. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 17 tells us we have freedom in Christ. Satan can however get you to believe the lie that nothing has really changed and in the process cripple your walk with Christ. Let me share with you for a few moments some of the truths of Scripture which relate directly to who I am in Christ?
1 John 1 verse 8 reminds me that I am still a ‘sinner’ but 1 John 2 verse 1 reminds me that I am forgiven in Christ Jesus.
I am Accepted
John 1 verse 12 – I am a child of God
John 15 verse 15 – I am Christ’s friend
Romans 5 verse 1 – I am justified before God
Ephesians 1 verse 5 – I am adopted by God
Colossians 1 verse 4 – I am redeemed and forgiven
Colossians 2 verse 10 – I am complete in Christ
I am Secure
Romans 8 verses 1-2 – I am free from condemnation
Romans 8 verse 28 – all things work for good in my life
Romans 8 verses 35-39 – I cannot be separated from God’s love
1 John 5 verse 18 – I am born of God and satan cannot harm me
I am Significant
John 15 – I am a branch of the true vine
Ephesians 2 verse 10 – I am God’s workmanship
Ephesians 3 verse 2 – I can approach God freely and confidently
How should I then live?
It is very easy to read through those verses and to believe them intellectually but it is quite a different matter to believe them in our hearts and to live accordingly. It is so easy to listen to the negatives concerning our Christian walk with Christ and to fail to believe in our hearts and lives that we are a ‘new creation.’ One reason for that is that we depend too much on our feelings when it comes to our Christian faith. Whilst the emotional has a part to play in our Christian life, for many Christians their faith is too dependent on their feelings. We actually need as Paul says in Romans 12 verse 2 to ‘be transformed by the renewing of our minds.’ We need to believe that what the Bible, God’s Word, says about us being a ‘new creation’ is true no matter what our feelings tell us. Let me ask you a simple question ‘Does your status as a son or daughter depend on your feelings?’ Of course it doesn’t. It is an objective fact that you are a son or daughter – feelings don’t enter into that objective truth. However, feelings can and do affect your relationship with your parents. Let me illustrate it further. For those of you who are married – is your marital status dependent on your feelings? No, it isn’t and it shouldn’t be. The fact you are married is based upon a public ceremony before God and witnesses in which you made a commitment of your wills – it is an objective fact. Your marriage relationship is of course affected by your emotions but your emotions do not nullify your marriage. Just because you do not feel married does not change your marital status. It is the same with our relationship with God – the objective fact is secure and we need to believe it and we need to rest secure in that knowledge. The objective fact is not changed by your feelings but your relationship with God can be affected by your emotions. Your security in Christ is not dependent on your emotional barometer. The problem with a lot of you is that your emotions, your feelings dictate the spiritual thermometer of your lives. Your walk with God if plotted on a graph would be a series of highs and lows and would correspond to your emotional highs and lows. How do I know that? Because I have been there myself on many occasions. We need in fact to bring every thought captive under the Word of God. We need to bring every feeling captive under the Word of God. When we listen to the Word of God and not our feelings then we will begin to understand who we are and we will begin to live accordingly. When we start to bring our feelings under the control and guidance of Scripture then we will begin to be secure in the knowledge of who we are in Christ. Then we will cease to be a spiritual ‘yo yo’ and start to walk in securely in our faith.
Another reason we fail to live as a ‘new creation’ is because we have not believed that we are a ‘new creation.’ You may well be one of those people this morning. For you the Christian life is one of failure, of disillusionment, of disappointment and one in which the ‘old man’ still seems to rule. Why is that? I think it is because whilst you know you have been born again in you head and you know the Scriptures about being a ‘new creation’ your heart has never grasped nor believed the change. Your mind is still thinking as the ‘old man’ thought. You have never brought your mind under the Lordship of Christ and under the influence of His Word. Your mind cannot be renewed or transformed because that which is being put into it is not of Christ but of the world. You turn not to God’s Word, nor to prayer, nor to the counsel of other Christians but to the things of the world when choices have to be made and decisions taken. The world dictates the direction of your life and you wonder why you are disappointed and disillusioned as a Christian. That is why Paul says in verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 5 ‘we no longer view anyone from a worldly point of view…’ He wants the believers at Corinth to think with a Christian mind when they look upon someone else. The can no longer see things or people as they once did because they are now in Christ and must see with His eyes, touch with His hands, think with His mind and love with His heart. What about you? Do you who are in Christ see with the eyes of Christ? Do you touch others with the love of Christ? Do you think as Christ thinks? The little bracelet WWJD – what would Jesus do? Is correct in challenging us to ask that question in every and any situation. It should become our first thought because we are a ‘new creation.’
So many of you are still living according to the ‘old man’ whilst paying lip service to Christ. You have never really repented of your sin. Oh yes, you have asked forgiveness but you have not repented. What do I mean by that? You have not repented – you have not turned away from the things of the ‘old man’ and his tentacles are still reaching into your life daily. As Christ said you need to sweep the house clean and allow the Holy Spirit to come in afresh this morning.
Finally if we are to believe and live as ‘new creations’ we need to soak our minds, our hearts and our lives in the truths of those verses I read to you this morning. Put them up somewhere prominent that each day you will be reminded of who you are in Christ Jesus and let them soak into your soul so that you not only intellectually believe them but they form the very fabric of your understanding of yourself. You need an attitude change. You need our mind to be transformed by the Word of God. You need to bring your feelings captive under the Word of God. The truth is, the reality is – it is time as those ‘in Christ’ that you believed His Word and lived His Word. It is time that you built your life on the truths of God’s Word and not on your emotions. It is time to build your life on the truth of God’s Word and what it teaches you about who you are and not on the estimations, aspirations and passing glories of this world.
Who am I? A sinner saved by grace – yes, but I am also a child of God, co-heir with Christ. I am unconditionally loved by God my Father and I am a new creation, the old man is dead and the new man lives in Christ. Amen.
