The Significance Of A New Creation-1 Series

The SIGNIFICANCE Of A NEW CREATION-I—2Corinthians 5:9--6:10

Attention:

The key to our verses— 2Corinthians 5:9--6:10— is 2Cor. 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Prov. 26:11—“As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.”

2Pet. 2:22—“But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” &, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

A dog can be trained not to eat his own vomit. But get him around other dogs or away from his master & he will quickly forget his training.

A dog can be bathed & have its hair fluffed up & perfumed so that it’s fit for a dog show, but if left to themselves, they will roll in some nastiness if given half a chance! In order for a dog NOT to do those things, the dog needs a new nature. So that his natural desire is different...so that he won’t do what dogs do by nature. In fact, he won’t even have a desire to do those things which once described him.

You can train a pig to stay out of the mud & live in your house.

But if left to himself, he will readily dive into the mud.

“If you could give him a new nature, say, the nature of a cat, when the test of a hot day & welcome mud came, he would not be happy in the mudhole even if his friends persuade him to join them again, he has a new nature, new desires. He does not think he is better than them, he just does not enjoy those things anymore. “Wallowing pigs, vomit eating [& nasty smelling dogs] are very happy in their activities & prove they do not have a new nature. A new nature produces a new heart [with correspondingly] desires & actions.”—SermonCentral

A true Christian receives a new nature.

Unlike stinky, vomit eating dogs, & mud-wallowing pigs.

Need:

My life seems hollow...I’m missing something.

I can’t seems to rise above the sinful desires of my heart.

The key to our verses is 2Cor. 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Paul clarified the significance of being a new creation in Christ to the Corinthian church.

There is significance to being a new creation in Christ.

But what is significant about being a new creation in Christ?

Some significations of being a new creation in Christ.

1—A new creation is significant in its New...

PLEASURE(5:9)

Explanation:(5:9)

5:9—“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”

No matter our situation whether in life or death(5:1-8), whether “present” with those whom we love & among those to whom we minister, whether immersed in unfamiliar places & people(s) among whose beliefs we do not understand or deserted by all who are dear to us, that no matter if even our own family disdains us to speak about or do...

If you don’t love God for what He’s done for you, then you won’t & can’t please Him.

We must of all things be so settled & seated in God by means of faith in Christ...that we ARE & continue to BE “well pleasing” to God. Not 'doing things' that ‘seem’ well pleasing to us in regard to God, but that I AM & you ARE the person God wants me & you to be thru Jesus Christ.

Life in Christ is about true Christian Character...nothing feigned...

1Tim. 3:1-7—“This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop[overseer/pastor], he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach & the snare of the devil.”

1Tim. 3:8-13—“Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children & their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing & great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.”