This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day four together of our look through 2 Corinthians
chapter five. We're going to look at verses 11 to 17 today, especially focusing on
verse 17. But let me begin by reading all those verses.

Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade men. What we
are is plain to God, and I hope it's also plain to your conscience.

We're not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but we are giving you an
opportunity to take pride in us so that you can answer those who take pride in
what is seen rather than what's in the heart. If we're out of our mind, it's for
the sake of God. If we're in our right mind, it's for you.

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. So from
now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view, though we once regarded
Christ in this way.

We do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The
old is gone.

The new has come. That verse, verse 17, is one of the most powerful verses in
all the New Testament. Paul, before this, talks about what it means to be saved,
what's happened in our salvation.

Tomorrow, we're going to take a closer look at what Jesus has done for us in our
salvation. Today, I'd like to focus on verse 17. Paul leads up to it with verse
16, talking about seeing everything in a new way, not from a merely physical,
worldly, he says, point of view, but seeing with the eyes of faith.

And then he says, it begins with you. If you're going to see everything in a new
way, it starts with you. You start to see yourself in a new way, the way that
God sees you.

If anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation. The old is gone, the new has
come. Now, step one here, before we go to how to see yourself, step one is to
make sure that you are in Christ.

If anyone is in Christ, what does it mean to be in Christ? It means you're
trusting in Christ for forgiveness. You're trusting in Christ for leadership and
guidance in life.

You're trusting in Christ for eternity, for your relationship with God. And
because you're trusting in him, he is in you. He's come to be in your life, to
take up residence in your life.

That's a spiritual mystery to many people. And I sure understand that, but it's
one of the clearest truths in the New Testament. He's not leaving us alone.

He's a part of every day of our lives. And because Jesus is not just near you,
not just with you, but he's actually in you through his spirit, through God's
Holy Spirit. There are some truths about you that you can never forget.

How do you see yourself in the way that God sees you? Three truths about
yourself in verse 17. Number one, you are a new creation.

You're a new creation. Now, first, just saying that, you think, what's new? I
mean, I became a Christian, I don't know, for you, maybe it was 30 years ago,
maybe it was three minutes ago or three months ago.

And you look at yourself, you look at yourself in the mirror and say, what's
new? The outside certainly doesn't look very new. In fact, just think about this
with me for just a second.

If you could have a new outside, something new on the outside, what would it be?
What would you choose? If you had your wildest dream, okay, this is how I'd like
to look on the outside.

20 years younger, 20 pounds lighter, whatever it is, that would be it. It's not
the outside, though, that God has made new, is it? It's the inside.

Inside us, he has made us new. So dream this one with me. If you could have a
new inside, what would you choose?

What would be the best looking inside that you could have? Well, here's what
God's given. He's given himself.

He's given his spirit. This new creation that he's put in us is his spirit. He
wants us to look like him.

He wants us to look like Jesus. I can't think of anything better than that. Now,
you are a new creation.

Three things are very strongly implied by just the word creation. And they
affect how we live every single day. New creation, the word creation means God
does it, not me.

Creation, this is not some self-improvement. This is a supernatural event. Now,
you and I are definitely involved in this event.

We get to enjoy it, but he's the one at work. There's a difference between
creating a wave and riding a wave. You don't create the waves.

God creates those, but you can ride the waves. And you can ride the wave of what
it means to be a new creation, but you don't make it happen. God does it.

A second truth that's implied here is God owns it, not me. The root for the
Greek word here comes from the word for owner. Creation implies ownership.

You make it, and it's yours. In many places, Paul talks to the Corinthians about
the fact that we're not our own because he's made us, and now he's made us a new
creation. We live our lives before him as the owner of our lives.

Creation, there's a third truth behind this, and that is it can't be undone. A
creation can't be undone. It's made, it's there, it's real, and you are a new
creation in him.

Now, a creation can be neglected, but it can't be undone. If you think about
physical creation, maybe you have an interest in caring for our physical
creation, and you realize there are a lot of people who neglect it. That's a
good thing to have an interest in caring for God's physical creation, by the
way.

Nature and this university is created. That's a good thing, but even more
important should be how we care for his new creation, what he's made within us
as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ. I don't want to neglect that.

I want to watch what God is doing, knowing that it can't be undone. Now, as a new
creation, what does that mean? There's a second truth about you because you're a
new creation.

Paul says the second truth is this, the old has gone. Because you're a new
creation, that means new. The old has gone.

Now, what's the old he's talking about here? Well, if you walk through the
entire New Testament, the old, when he talks about old, it refers to the old way
of keeping rules, the old law. I make myself right with God by keeping a bunch
of rules.

And it also refers to the old sinful self. The fact that I'm separated from God
because within me, at the core of who I am, I'm selfish, I'm a sinner. Jesus put
that to death on the cross.

Now, you look at this and you think, wait a minute. What does that mean for me?
I mean, the old sinful self is dead.

I still sin sometimes. I still struggle sometimes. The old sinful self has gone,
but that doesn't mean you don't have to live with the realities of it sometimes.

And when you begin to see yourself in a new way, it's realizing that Jesus has
done something in me that causes God to see me in a new way. When I look at
myself, I see the sins that I struggle with. When God looks at me, he sees the
old is gone, forgiven because of what happened on the cross.

So I spend the rest of my life living up to what God already sees in me because
of what Jesus has done for me. That's how you live your life. The old has gone.

The old sinful nature is dead. The old way of keeping the law, you're free from
that now. You don't have to live that way anymore.

You get to live by faith, not by sight. You get to live by the Spirit, not by
the law. The old has gone.

And he says, don't miss this, the new has come. The new life is a gift that God
gives. It's not a right that you earn.

It's not something you deserve by the way that you live. It's a gift that God
gives. You don't have to earn it or deserve it or achieve it.

You just live it. You just, you put it on. Sometimes it's called like a suit of
clothes.

You put it on. You don't just stop doing the old thing. You start doing
something new.

You start living the new way. Now, the new has come. What does that mean?

What's new about you? Based on Jesus' new teaching and Jesus' new covenant and
Jesus' new promise, you have been given a new heart by God's Spirit. And because
of that new heart, that means you have, as you trust in him, as you follow him,
that means you have, and there's a list of things in the New Testament.

Let me just tell you some of them. Maybe one of these will be extremely
significant to you today. That means you have new direction in life by God's
Spirit.

He's your guide. That means you have new potential in your life. He is the one
that grows you into his purpose in your life.

That means you have new promise in your life. We live our life based on God's
promises now, not based on just our plans, not just based on our circumstances.
Because you're new in Christ, that means you have a new relationship with
others.

You have a bunch of believers in your life that you're brothers and sisters with
now. You can have a new relationship with them. And even those who are your
enemies, Jesus says you forgive even your enemies.

You have a new relationship with others. And obviously you have a new
relationship with God. Now you're in friendship with God.

Now you're in relationship with God. That's what it means to have a new life.
He's given you a new future, the future of an eternity with him in heaven.

He's given you a new identity, the identity of being in Christ, identified with
Christ now, and not with your past. Now, people around you might still identify
you with your past. In fact, you many times might still just think of yourself
in terms of your past.

That's not the way God sees you. So start to see yourself in a new way. This new
identity that you have now that you're in Jesus.

You have a new joy in your life. Not the happiness that's based on the temporary
circumstances of this world, but a depth of joy that cannot be taken away
because your relationship with him can't be taken away. You're new and you stay
new because of who he is.

You have a new energy in your life because of who he is. You have a new power in
your life because of who he is. You're new.

As you think about living this new life, you put off the old, you put on the
new. As you think about living this new life, the one thing I want to leave you
with is this. You don't have to achieve your new life.

This new life, it's a creation of God, remember? It's a creation of God. The
spirit has made us new already.

You are not creating the new, you're just putting on God's creation. We don't
have to make ourselves new. We just put on the new life the spirit's already
given us.

Now, we're funny about this. We think we somehow have to do it ourselves. It's
as if God has given us this $1,000 suit and it's hanging in our closet, but we
think, well, God, you know, I want to show you how dedicated I am to you.

And so I'm going to do it myself. So we're over here with this pile of dirty rags
and we're trying to sew 'em together to make 'em look the very best we can. And
after we're all done, and it may take us a long time, a lot of sewing, we get a
lot of pain.

Our fingers are aching from the sewing. After we're all done with that, we put
on this shirt of filthy rags and say, God, look what I did for you. And you can
almost see the Lord smiling from heaven, just shaking his head, saying, just put
on the suit I gave you.

It's not about you achieving this for me. If I could achieve it for him, I'd be
prideful about it. No, it's about what he's given me.

He's given me a new life. That means this new direction, this new energy, this
new power that he has for my life. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation.

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has
come. Jesus, as we pray together, help us to experience the new has come in our
lives today.

Whether that means new direction, new purpose, a new sense of your promise, a
newness in our relationship with others, new choices, a recognition of the new
relationship we have with you, or the new future, the new identity, the new joy,
the new energy, the new power you give us. Lord, we live with the old all around
us, and we struggle with the old temptations within us. But that does not mean
that this is not true.

And you see us in a new way. And we get to spend the rest of our lives living up
to how you see us. And when we get to eternity, we're going to match how you see
us.

So in that hope, in that reality, let us live in new ways today, we pray. In
your name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at one of the most powerful
descriptions of what Jesus has done for us that you'll find anywhere in the
Bible.