A New Creation, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In his article in Christianity Today, Russell Moore says, Jesus doesn't want to be in your life. Your life is a wreck. Jesus calls you into his life, and his life isn't boring or purposeless.

It's wild and exhilarating and unpredictable. When we come to Christ, he doesn't just polish up what is already there. He makes us a new creation.

The old is passed away. We become dead to self and alive to Christ. Listen as Pastor Rich shares what it looks like to be made new in Christ. From 2 Corinthians 5, 12-17. This is part 2 of a message titled, New Creation. It was first preached on April 13, 2014. Which is broken for you.

For you. And then he took the cup, and he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. When he says, in my blood, what is he referring to?

His forfeited life. And so, when he says, this is the new covenant in my blood. Remember Paul referred to that back in chapter 3.

And this is the glory of the gospel. The new covenant in my blood. Three things that we need to remember that that means. What is the new covenant? What is our benefit from the new covenant? Three things. Number one, forgiveness. That a holy God would forgive me, a sinful rebel.

But not only that. The benefit of the new covenant. Jesus said, the new covenant in my blood. He said, with my new covenant, you get a new heart. In Ezekiel, he describes it, I will take out your heart of stone. Stone means cold and unresponsive.

Lifeless. He says, I will put instead a heart of flesh, which means it is alive and it is relational. And you have the capacity now, in Christ, to be able to relate to God who made you. That's the new man.

The new person. And thirdly, he says, I will put my spirit in them. The God of the universe takes up residence within the believer. And we become, as Peter says, partakers of the divine nature. Did you catch all that newness? It is amazing that God would do this.

But he has. And that is our status. That we are in Christ.

Listen, as we're going through this today, there's a lot of indicative here. This is what God has done. And this is what God has done for you. Christians, listen to me.

Know this. Study this. Meditate upon this. You must know who you are according to what God has revealed. Far too many Christians today living defeated lives because they don't know who they are. And if you don't know who you are, you are destined to simply try harder to be better.

And that doesn't work. It's not grace. You have a new status as a new creation. You have a new status. Secondly, you have life. You have life. You have within you a life that once before did not exist.

It is the term unregenerate. Regeneration. Come to life again. Born again.

Regeneration. Two kinds of people walking the face of this earth. The unregenerate and the regenerate. Those who do not have life and those who do. Those who are dead in their sins and those who are alive to God. John says it very, very clearly. 1 John 5, 12. He who has the Son has what? Life. It doesn't get any clearer than that. He who has the Son has life.

The converse is also true. You don't have the Son, you don't have life. You say, I'm alive and well.

Really? You are separated. You are alienated from the one who made you and the one who is the source and sustainer of life. And when you have the Son and you have life, what it means is His history becomes yours.

His life becomes yours. Romans 6, 4. We quote this verse often. Romans 6, 4. We quote it often like when we're at baptism. We were buried with Him through baptism.

See, His history becomes yours. 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. You see, the newness of my life is anchored in the historic event of Jesus Christ walking out of the grave. And this is in contrast to one who is dead in sin.

Who is locked in the domain of darkness, alienated from God. I use this often. I can't think of a better illustration though. The tree and the tree branch. You take a branch and you break it off the tree. That branch is lying on the ground and what is it doing? It is dying.

That's all it can do. It might look alive. But if you are here this morning and you are not reconciled to God, you are not grafted back into the tree where you are drawing life from the tree. You are a branch lying on the ground. And some people might say, I'm actually doing quite well.

Thank you very much. I have a good job. I have a really excellent portfolio. I have a good wife and family. I'm pretty optimistic about life.

Wonderful. It means you're dying with style. And I'm not making light of it. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Therein is life.

Apart from it, you do not have life. In Christ we have everlasting life as opposed to what God said to Adam and Eve. If you partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. And it's not that as soon as they took the bite they keeled over and died physically.

But that bite of rebellion separated them from their creator. That is death. But in Christ we have life eternal, life everlasting. A life everlasting is a life that is replete with longevity, wholeness, peace, purpose, satisfaction and on the list goes as is revealed to us in scripture. And it ends up in a place forever enjoying God the very thing that we were created and designed for. Forever enjoying Him in a place where there is no defilement, there is no destruction, no decay, no disappointment, no despair, no deceit, no disdain.

Anything that begins with dis, it's not there. Some of you might be sitting here thinking if you are in Christ and you're thinking, wow, Rich, this is so good and this is wonderful and the word of God is so true. But I don't feel new. I don't feel like a new creation. That's why we don't really emphasize feelings here. But they are an important part of our reality, aren't they? The way God made us. And this is why it's so important to know what God has revealed.

How about right now? Am I new now living in this earth with all the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation? Am I new even though I don't feel new? I need to understand this. John tells me this. He that is born of God, God has planted His seed in you and His seed remains in you. The nature of the parent is handed down to the child and His seed remains in you. It is that life that God has created in you. But not only that, the Bible tells me that I am the first, Christ is the first fruits of my resurrection since Christ walked out of the grave. Physically, it means that I one day will too because I am in Him. And He is the foretaste. He has given us a foretaste and a guarantee in the person of His Holy Spirit. And I could go, that right there, those words you see on the screen, that is material for a series of two months.

So go home and do your homework. Thank you very much. Christian, know who you are. You see, today I can say that in Christ I am alive.

What does that mean? That means I am growing in the character of Christ. He has launched in me the process of sanctification. It is a transformation where I am becoming more like Christ and listen to me, it is the nature of life to grow. If you are in Christ, it means within you is life and it is the nature of life to grow. But there is coming that day, in the end, when this life is done. And in that day, I will be fully, completely like Christ.

That's not sanctification, that is glorification. You see, what I have in me now is the seed form of what will be the reality at a future time. And it's growing.

And as it continues to grow, then the old man is pushed to the sidelines. That's sanctification. And in one day, in that day, I will be perfectly like Him. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be what?

Like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That's glorification. And what I have in me now is a seed form of that. It's just, you know, Paul said, though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day. Is it? Can you say that? You see, that's new creation. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.