Seven truths from 2 Corinthians 5:17 explain how union with Christ makes anyone a new creation, frees them from their past, and brings future life into the present.
Speakers
Matt Felton — teaching
Announcements
A twelve-week Reformation classroom began this morning, meeting Sundays at 10:00 a.m. in the conference room. Event details
A sermon series through Philippians begins in two weeks and runs from this fall into next spring. Event details
1. No one is beyond the saving power of Jesus
“Anyone” means any age, any race, any sinner. Children are not too young; elderly people are not too old while they still have breath.
Paul wrote “anyone” after having hunted and murdered Christians. Whatever you have done, however recently, Jesus can wash you and keep you forever.
Never think “not him” about another person or “not me” about yourself. Offer the gospel to everyone.
2. The defining reality of the Christian life is union with Christ
“In Christ” and related phrases appear about 200 times in the New Testament, 164 from Paul. Faith truly joins believers to Jesus and His victory.
Justification means God credits your sins to Jesus and His righteousness to you, declaring you forgiven and righteous immediately through faith alone.
Before 39 founding members adopted the 1853 statement of faith, the pastors changed justification from “the” to “a” great gospel blessing: union with Christ stands alongside it.
God cannot look at you without seeing His Son. He will never condemn you and will forever delight in you because you are in Christ.
3. Conversion is a miracle on par with God's creation of the world
Genesis 1 supplies Paul's picture: God speaks into darkness and creates light. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, that same God shines into our hearts.
Christianity is a religion of resurrection. Neither upbringing, education, nor moral improvement can produce the new birth; God must create life where there was spiritual death.
Conversion is miraculous, whether an earthquake or slow rolling thunder. Reducing it to pressure or programming weakens churches.
4. Your past no longer defines you
“The old has passed away” includes your guilty record. God no longer counts believers' trespasses against them (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Colossians 2:13-14 pictures your debts nailed to Jesus' cross and cancelled. Colossians 3:3 pictures your life hidden with Christ in God.
Luther's counsel: answer the devil's accusations by pointing to Jesus, who suffered and satisfied your debt. Stop rehearsing guilt God has already dealt with.
5. Your past must no longer rule you
Romans 6:6 says your old self was crucified with Christ. That person enslaved to sin has received a mortal blow and cannot finally prevail.
Romans 6:11-12 calls you to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. Refuse to let sin reign in your body.
Fight temptation by rehearsing the old self's funeral: “That man is dead. I do not have to do that anymore.” Become who you already are.
6. The gospel gives new life
New covenant: Christ has done everything for you; believe in Him and live.
New heart: The Spirit replaces a stony heart with one that wants, trusts, and obeys God.
New freedom: Sin's bonds are broken; you can change and obey (2 Corinthians 3:17).
New vision: See God's glory and value people as He does, beyond wealth, popularity, or usefulness.
New purpose: Spend your gifts and resources for Jesus, beyond your own comfort (2 Corinthians 5:15).
New standing: God sees you clothed in Christ's righteousness.
New mission: You are Christ's ambassador, appealing to others to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
New family: Like an adopted orphan discovering many siblings, learn to love and sacrifice for all your brothers and sisters, including those unlike you.
7. The future has invaded the present in the local church
Washington's museums hold Babylonian relics, Sumerian tablets, and Assyrian weapons: evidence of vanished worlds. Believers belong to God's promised new heavens and new earth.
The local church is the lost civilization of a future world. God's Spirit and resurrection power already dwell in people belonging to that future world.
Be who you are: resist building church like a business, judging people by worldly standards, or gathering only with those of your age and culture.
Key Takeaways
Offer Jesus to anyone; no sinner is beyond His saving power.
Rest in union with Christ and His finished work.
Refuse both yesterday's guilt and yesterday's slavery to sin.
Live together as people who already belong to God's future world.