The New Creation

II Corinthinans 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

I don't know about you, but I love new things. I like the way they look, smell and feel. The funny thing is most of the time, I hate getting rid of the old things that I have become accustomed to having. I also like the way they look, smell and feel. They're comfortable, and sometimes its hard to get use to something new and different. It also takes a while to get the new stuff broken in and feeling comfortable.

Salvation is the same way. When a person gets saved, two things happens to him. The old things(or lifestyle) pass away and he becomes a new creation(a new lifestyle). Jesus called it being born again. Why? Because salvation is so completely different than the worlds standard, that it is like starting over again from birth. Only it is a different kind of birth. This time it is a spiritual birth. A new creation is born.

Let's look at this new creation a little bit closer so that we can see a little bit clearer what the salvation experience is all about. I said earlier that two things happen when a person gets saved.

I. The Old Things Pass Away - The wonderful thing about salvation is that all our past is forgiven. Once we are saved, nothing we have ever done in our past is ever remembered again. God chooses to forget and it is never brought up again. Look in Hebrews 10:17 - ¹⁷then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Three things passed away, or died, the day I received Christ.

1. The old man passed away - Romans 6:3-11 says, ³Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. ⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The old man is dead. When he died, the sin in his life died with him. I was freed from the sin that was in me when I accepted Christ, because the old man in me had died. The old me no longer lives and I don't have to give an account for anything the old man has ever done. Thank God for a wonderful act of mercy and grace.

2. The desire to sin is passed away - You don't want to do the things you use to do, go to the places you use to go, or hang out with the people you use to hang out with. Psalm 101:3&4 says, ³I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. ⁴A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness. None of us are perfect and we all from time to time are tempted and sometimes act on the things we hate the most. But, even though we might sin, our hearts desire has changed. As an old preacher once said, "Our 'want to' has changed." We don't want to be the person we use to be. Even Paul had sometimes had difficulty with sin. I don't usually use this passage because there are some that have a hard time understanding what it means, but look at Romans 7:18-25 - ¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ²¹I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²²For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. I don't usually use other translations than the New King James Bible, but I think that the New Living Translation makes this passage a little bit clearer. ¹⁸ I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. ¹⁹ When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. ²⁰ But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.

²¹ It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²² I love God's law with all my heart. ²³ But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. ²⁴ Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? ²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Even though the desire to sin is passed away, we sometimes we are faced with temptation and give in to the sin that use to plague us. How do we fight and win over these temptations? Look at Psalm 119:9-11 - ⁹How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. ¹⁰With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! ¹¹Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!

Prayer and God's Word, the Bible, are the only weapons that are give to us to fight against sin. If we lay either of them down, we leave ourselves open to the attacks of Satan. We will eventually become weak and give in to the temptation that Satan is pounding us with. The person that is truly save won't stay in the dirt and mire of sin very long. The back-slidden Christian is the most miserable person in the world. They have given in to the temporary pleasure of sin, but they can't enjoy it like the world does or the way they use to, because the desire to sin is dead in them and the desire and need to be right with God and live right is making it impossible to enjoy the sin that they are in or find the peace that they use to have when they were in the right way.

3. The old lifestyle is passed away - When I got saved I tried to still keep my old friends, but two things happened. First, I didn't feel comfortable with them anymore and second, they didn't want to hang out with me anymore. At first it bothered me but after I thought about it, I really didn't want to live like they were living anyway. Ephesians 5:7-18 says ⁷Therefore do not be partakers with them. ⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. ¹⁴Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep,

Arise from the dead,

And Christ will give you light."

¹⁵See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, ¹⁶redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. The desire for the old lifestyle died along with the desire to sin. I left the old lifestyle and although I have been tempted from time to time, I have never really wanted to go back. My "want to's" changed. I don't want to go back to the drunkenness, the drugs, and the rock lifestyle. I like things that are good, righteous, and truthful. Just as Peter said in I Peter 4:1-5, people have thought it strange that I don't want to do the things that they consider to be fun. ¹Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, ²that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. ³For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles--when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. ⁴In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. ⁵They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

When I received Christ, all the things that I mentioned have died in me. They are not a part of who I am anymore. But the wonderful thing about God is that He doesn't take anything away with out replacing it with something better. My old way of living might have died, but God replaced it with an new way of living. A much better way of living. I no longer worry about hurting someone intentionally, or being so high, that I can't remember how I got home. I no longer worry about dying and what will happen when I do leave this life. So many good things have happened to me. A new life was born, or as Jesus said, "Born Again," everything became new. That is what I want us to look at next.

II. All Things Have Become New - Like I said before, my whole lifestyle changed. I saw the world like it was brand new. Everything seemed new to me. I liked things that I hadn't liked before and I didn't like things that I had liked before. I was like an open book that was just waiting to be written. The first thing I noticed about this new life of mine was:

1. A zeal to know and serve God - I was a new "babe" in Christ, and I wanted to be fed as much of His Word as I could get in me. I Peter 2:2 describes exactly the way I felt - ²as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. I couldn't believe all that the Bible contained about living and loving God. I went to church every time the doors were opened. I read my Bible every chance I got. I listened to Christian radio instead of the "garbage" I use to listen to. I stayed away from anything that got in the way of my relationship with Jesus. I even split up with my girlfriend because our relationship was not the kind that would be pleasing to God and in keeping with the moral standards of the Bible. My zeal for serving God was so radical, that people who knew me well, couldn't believe the change. They kept thinking it was only temporary. But it wasn't, I still love Him with all my heart and my deepest desire is to serve Him and please Him with the way I live.

2. A love for living and for other people - Psalm 16:11 says, You will show me the path of life;In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. I always enjoyed living, but after I got saved, I really knew what it was like to really live. In the John 10:10, Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. Life in Jesus is more abundant, more fulfilling, than it ever was before I met Him. God wants us to enjoy life the way it was meant to be enjoyed, the only way it can be enjoyed, and that is, in a close relationship with Him.

Contrary to what the advertisers of the world might tell you, you don't need to have a bottle of alcohol to have fun, or a joint with a few friends to have a good time. We don't need to be in the back seat of a car or a hotel room, or in a bed to have a good time on a date. That is not what life is about. It is a counterfeit, to what life is about and it only causes harm to those that do those things. To live life to the fullest, to really enjoy life and all it has to offer, one needs to live it in Christ. He gives life and He gives it more abundantly.

3. A desire to see people saved. When you find something really exciting or something that has really made a difference to you, that natural thing for us to do is tell someone. You get a new car, or house, you get a lot of money, or get to take a fantastic vacation, or you might have a new baby. We all get excited when something good happens to us. We want to share the news of that good fortune with someone else. It's the same way when we get saved. We have found the most exciting thing that could ever happen to anybody and we need to tell someone. Andrew, after he met Jesus, told Peter(John 1:40-42). Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of Whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth" then he said to him, "come and see"(John 1:43-47). The woman at the well, after she met Him, went and told the whole town about Jesus (John 4). When I accepted Jesus, the first person I told was my mother, then, the next day at work, I told everyone that walked into the store that I worked in about what had happened to me.

Meeting Jesus is a life changing event. You will either reject Him and go your own way or you will accept Him and His sacrifice for your sins. When you do, it will change your life completely. You will feel cleaner that you have ever felt before. (Psalm 51:4) - Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. A peace will come into your heart like you have never felt before. (John 14:27) - ²⁷"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You have a peace in your heart that you can't explain, except that your sins are forgiven and you no longer feel guilty for them. When you accept Christ as you Savior, you become a new creation, old things(old desires, old wants) pass away, then you have a new life to live. Your are free. Free from the guilt and burden of sin. Free from the bondage of sin. (Romans 6:6) - ⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. It's too long to print, but look at the rest of Romans chapter 6 to see the freedom we have from sin.

If you have never accepted Christ, do it today. Know the freedom from sin that only He can give. Know the peace in your heart that only He can give.

If you have accepted Christ before, and you have fallen back into sin, come back to Him today. I John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He will forgive your sin too. I believe the most miserable person in the world is the Christian that has unconfessed sin. Why? Because he has known the truth and he has known the peacefulness of a walk with Christ, and he has for one reason or another decided not to walk in that peace with Christ. His sin has burdened him down again and the load is a heavy burden to carry. That person knows the truth, but refuses to walk in it. Repent(turn away from) of your sin, and walk with Christ again. Know the peace that only He can give.

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