IN CHRIST
THERE'S A NEW LIFE
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Louisa Fletcher wrote a beautiful poem that began with the words, "I wish that there were some wonderful place / Called the Land of Beginning Again, / Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches / And all of our poor selfish grief / Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door / And never put on again." Well, that is what becoming a Christian is all about, my friend.
We are told that suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the general population – seventh among males and tenth among the females. It's third, and some say the second leading cause of death among the youth, following closely behind drunk driving as number one, and murder as number two. I am not a psychologist or a sociologist having made an in-depth-study of these things, so I don't know why there are so many such deaths, or why the rate is increasing, but (and this is purely unscientific) it seems to me that a lot of people are finding the life they have been living is not worth living really. Or perhaps they just see no prospects for a better life in this world. So, they just end it. Oh, there are many more than that who are finding life unbearable but they haven't, and they won't, end it. They will just suffer through it. The well-known lawyer and orator of almost a century ago, an agnostic, Clarence Darrow, might have been one of those. In debate with Dr. Frederick Starr on the question, "Is Life Worth Living," he argued that, "Life is but an unpleasant interruption of nothing, and the best that can be said for it is, that it does not last long."
Well, our lesson is not about suicide, but it is about a hundred-eighty degree turn from that to a New Life in Christ Jesus. For people who are tired of life the way it is, rather than to end it all, there is a new life possible in Jesus Christ.
We are reading today from Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth in chapter five. We are beginning at verse 17.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:17-21).
The intelligent ones among us ought to be eternally grateful to the Father (Joh 3:16) for sending his Son, to die in our place that we might have the opportunity to live in His place through Eternity. Not only for the salvation that He brought us, not only because through Him we are reconciled, but also that He brought us the best way to live that man has ever known. He promised us that He came to give us an abundant life, and now as Christians we can enjoy that abundant life here in this world. Are we as grateful as we ought to be? Probably not!
There are lots of people that are really hurting today. There is no way of knowing all the ways or the reasons. Only God can know that. Their pains are as real as they are varied. Some are suffering innocently; others are not. It may be that the life they have carved out for themselves hasn't been too good to them. It's a hard lesson, but we have to learn it sooner or later, one way or another: choices and deeds have their consequences – or their rewards. Our choices and our preferred lifestyles inevitably determine the course of our lives. The wise King Solomon wrote that “Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is hard” (Pro 13:15). It is so true. It's always been that way. From the very beginning God has had an unfailing law which says that all life shall "bring forth after its own kind” (Gen 1:11,12). The apostle Paul makes a spiritual application of that principle in his letter to the Galatians. He says,
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked (to sneer at or deride): for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal 6:7,8).
The choice is always ours as to how we choose to live, but the choice is never ours when it comes to the consequences of a bad choice. Righteous Job records, “I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8). King David adds:
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off” (Psa 37:23-28).
Our lesson is for people who now know that they have goofed in life. It's about an alternative to self-destruction or suicide. It is about the urgency of beginning a new life. It is about abandoning the continuance of a bad choice. Why stay aboard a train that isn't going anywhere, or even worse than that, why stay aboard a sinking ship, or one that will take you to where you don't want to go or to be?
Our Savior referred to the process of becoming a child of God as a new birth. In His conversation with Nicodemus He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Joh 3:3). Where there is a birth there is always a new creature – a new life. The apostle Peter referred to the new child of God as a "newborn babe." He said, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1Pe 2:2). That just simply means that for the new born babe in Christ there are many questions for which he has no answers, but he keeps on studying the word of God and the answers will come as he grows in knowledge and in faith. Our text reads, “. . . if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (v.17).
Let's consider some of those "old things" that are passed away and the new things that have come in Christ.
First, I think of the old negative way of thinking that is passed away, and the new way of thinking that has replaced it. Without belief in God, the ultimate authority and standard of righteousness, it is impossible to please God. The Hebrews writer states, “He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6). A person's faith in God – and in His Son Jesus Christ – and in the Bible as His inspired word, determines the course of any person’s life more than any other single factor. In believing, the old fatalism of doubt is replaced with the new optimism of assurance and conviction. That is powerful; powerful enough to bring about other changes, too.
Second, the old slavery or addiction to sin is passed away and the new freedom from that addiction to sin is in Jesus Christ, and it has come when one becomes a Christian. The new child of God is by the Holy Spirit to be free to do the things he ought to do; rather than freedom to do what Satan chooses for him. That is the way Jesus said it to the Jews who had believed in Him, that "If you abide in My word, then are you My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They were offended and bristled up at that. They answered Him, “We are Abraham's seed and offspring, and we have never yet been enslaved to any one. How is it that you say, You shall become free?” And Jesus answered them, “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Jno 8:31-36).
So then, there is a new life in Jesus Christ. It is a life that is free from the gnawing, nagging guilt of past sins and freedom from the craving to the sins of the past, to keep on doing the sin or the sins of the past through which one has been enslaved in the past. Paul writes to the saints in Rome and says,
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom 6:16-18).
Are you thinking as did the Jews, that you are not a slave to your sins? Try renouncing them – try giving them up. The TV shouts out constantly every day about those who cannot give up smoking, or gambling, or overeating, or drugs, or pornography, etc., etc. That is why we have "support groups" for just about every individual who admits to helplessness, such as AA and gamblers anonymous and drug recovery groups and various kinds of other reform groups. People become addicted to their sin and find it exceedingly difficult to quit. Without Christ and apart from the grace of a loving God, it is usually impossible with men.
A favorite hymn with many is entitled "Buried with Christ." It expresses this message of freedom in Christ:
"Buried with Christ, my blessed Redeemer, Dead to the old life of folly and sin; Satan may call, the world may entreat me, There is no voice that answers within. Think it not strange that things I once cherished Cannot allure me or charm as before; For in the flesh with Christ I have suffered, Old things are passed, I love them no more. Dead unto sin, alive through the Spirit, Risen with Him from the gloom of the grave. All things are new, and I am rejoicing, In His great love, His power to save. Sin hath no more its cruel dominion, Walking in newness of life, I am free -- Glorious life of Christ, my Redeemer, Which He so richly shareth with me." And the chorus says, "Dead to the world, to voices that call me, Living anew, obedient but free; Dead to the joys that once did enthrall me – Yet 'tis not I, Christ liveth in me."
We used to sing it a lot – not always but often on the occasion of a baptism because that is the point in time, that by the grace of God, the old life of sin ends, and the new life in Christ begins. That's the moment a person passes from out-of-Christ into Christ. That is what the Holy Spirit says in Romans chapter 6 verses 3 through 13:
"We are 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. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing 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. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
Well, the new life in Christ also begins a new purpose, a new purpose for living. I don't know about you, but it saddens me deeply to see so many people just drifting along through life without the slightest idea why they are here. Our faith in God demands that there's purpose in creation. There is purpose in the movements of history. There's purpose in human existence. We mentioned the agnostic Clarence Darrow. He is recognized as one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century. He was for many years a platform speaker and debater and a famous criminal lawyer. He was the ACLU attorney for the state in what has been called "the trial of the century, the twentieth century," the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee in 1925. He made the statement in his final summation in a debate with Dr. Frederick Starr, an anthropologist, also an agnostic from Illinois, on the question "Is Life Worth Living," Darrow said, "Life is but an unpleasant interruption of nothing; and the best that can be said for it is, that it does not last long." That, my friend, is life without God and His Son Jesus Christ. But in sharp contrast to that, in Colossians 3 and 4, the apostle Paul wrote of "Christ who is our life." Christ gives meaning and purpose to life.
Not only is there new life and faith and freedom and purpose in the life which is in Christ, there is also a new hope. Job who is the very personification, or maybe, incarnation of trouble said, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.” Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to a backslidden nation about to go into bondage to a pagan nation because of their national sins and rejection of God. And he was told to warn the people, "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds. But they will say, It is hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jer 18:11,12 nasv). "It is hopeless!" they said, because they would go their own way and do their own thing, and without God there is no hope. Our text says "God is in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." The hope He offers is eternal life with Him beyond the grave.
Without attempting to insult the intelligence of anyone, we ask, “Why would anyone not want to get things right with the Almighty God and accept his gracious offer of the Christ? What is there in the world that even remotely compares with the blessings of a personal relationship with the Almighty Creator and his Son our Savior and Lord – and our judge. Why would any intelligent person not crave the forgiveness of his sins and the peace that follows forgiveness? Why would anyone not seek the brotherhood of true and loyal family members; not just called brothers, but real brothers? Why indeed?
Come to Jesus! He will save you, Tho your sins as crimson glow;
If you give your heart to Jesus, He will make it white as snow.
Come to Jesus! Do not tarry, Enter in at mercy’s gate;
O delay not till the morrow, Lest thy coming be too late.
Come to Jesus! Dying sinner! Other Savior there is none;
He will share with you His glory, When your pilgrimage is done.
Lesson borrowed and edited from TV address by Mack Lyon