“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2Cor:5:17
We live in a time when hope is diminished in the land. It is a time when some people feel that their lives are meaningless and without hope. Hope is dead for many persons and unfortunately even Christians can at times succumb to this sense of hopelessness.
Hopelessness
Some don’t even know that there can be hope,
they live out their hopelessness in meaningless pursuits or they live
with misplaced hopes looking to something in which to find their needs
met, yet it this thing never seems to fulfill that deep seated need.
Dead Spiritually
Many people pass through life unaware of
what Jesus Christ has accomplished on their behalf, that Jesus has
accomplished everything needed for salvation for us by and in Christ. This
salvation is there for them. An all-new life is there, they could experience
it, yet they do not. But instead of this new life much of humanity goes its
way in ignorance or indifference, and in some cases rejection of who
Jesus is.
They are dead spiritually, that is, they are
not living that life which they could be, as were all of us, until,
through Jesus, God moved to made away for us to experience a whole new
life.
"And You being dead in your sins and the
circumcision of your flesh" Col: 2:13a.
This is how we all conducted
ourselves, dead in our sins, yet, this is the state of spiritual
slumber humanity lives out of in the ignorance of who Jesus Christ is.
We “lived” in death and
understand that death is not just a state or condition, it is a way of life
that produces a “deadness”, the way of death, which is only for the here and
now and produces nothing which can last or has eternal value.
There was no hope in this ignorance of
who our Lord is and all that Jesus has done for humanity. This sense of
deadness characterizes the lives of millions. Too many follows
after meaningless pursuits and attempts to give
humanities' temporary existence meaning, but nothing answers this need.
All around us there are those whose
lives are marked with attempts to gratify the flesh hoping to fill this
hopeless void within themselves. It is almost, as if they are
searching for evidence that they are alive. These varies pursuits might
tantalize and stimulate for a time, but it can't last.
Many think only in terms of “the now”, many people seem to be going nowhere, lives become
meaningless, hopelessness leads some to a life of futile pursuits, sin and debauchery.
One reason the society around us is degrading
into sinful life styles and the abandonment of moral purity
is, the loss of hope. When hope fails moral restraints are cast away, the
idea is "live for the moment".
This is the very state that our Lord has come
to set us free from, to give us all redemption, to instill new meaning to life
all through Jesus, we could not have done it for ourselves.
"He has quickened together with Him,
having forgiven you all trespasses" Col: 2:13b
New Creation
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation: old things are passed away;behold, all things are become
new" 2Cor:5:17
We are new creations, now, not will be. This newness is experienced by
belief and faith in who Jesus is, that is, when we believe in Jesus,
we see what Jesus has done for us our lives and who he made us to be and are
made new in Him.
The early church thought deeply about the
entrance of Jesus into human history, they pondered its meaning, they asked
"what did it mean?" what had changed in humanities
relationship with God?
St. Paul says in 2Cor: 5:14 "we have considered", this tells us that though
prayer, discussion, and most possibly with contention the early church
developed a theology regarding the incarnation and its impact upon humanities
relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
What is it that they considered? "That one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for
all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who
for them and was raised again” 2Cor:5:14-15
"I am the Resurrection"
"I am the Resurrection"
when we read this so often, we think of this as speaking of Jesus' coming again
from the grave, or any future resurrection, but Jesus says this even before
his own death.
The resurrection is who Jesus is,
it is not just an event that Jesus is a part of. The bodily resurrection of
Jesus only showed what has always been eternally true. Death cannot hold him he
has defeated death from within death itself, this is why we read in the Book of
Acts, which quotes the Psalm.
"you will not permit your Holy
One to see corruption" Act: 13:35
The power of Jesus being the Resurrection
changes us, and all things forever, for if Jesus does not live, we could
not live either.
In Jesus "all died”, and in Jesus the same "all", we are told, has been "raised”. Jesus could do this as being fully God
yet fully human. He has brought the race(all) out of death
into life, and can be entered into by simply accepting it by faith and God’s grace.
Out of death we are brought into a new
life with and by and Him. Jesus, being God, is not bound or confined by
time, therefore his life, death and resurrection has eternal impact, stretching
from eternity past and into eternity future, and touching even all
humanity.
The Death of Nothing
There was nothing, that is materially, in
the nothingness of the past before creation, and out of this nothing, and it
was into the nothingness of death God spoke and brought the material creation
into being. The Lord God brings creation and life out of the death
of nothing.
"In the beginning God created the Heavens
and the Earth" Gen: 1:1
In the Gospel of St. John, the Apostle is
moved by the Holy Spirit to open his account of the life of Jesus in the
eternity past, even before the Great God brought the universe into being.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God . He was with God in the
beginning" Jhn:1:1-2 .
St. John here is using an important literary
device, by equating the coming of the Messiah with the use of the
words " In beginning", we see the
opening words of the creation epic. St. John, is stating that the
introduction of Jesus into human history, as one of us, is a creation
event, that of an all-new creation, and in Jesus this new creation is
accomplished, as well as, speaking that the very one who created
is the one of whom St. John and the other Apostles were
proclaiming. God has brought life out of death by Jesus alone. Jesus
is life incarnate and has come to retrieve our material nature out of the
nothingness of death's grasp.
All Things New
When we see this, and come
believe that God makes All Things New in his Son Jesus, this
gives us hope of the New Creation that he has made us to be in Jesus;
and that we could not have done this on our own. He did it all for us
through Jesus Christ.
We are now a new creation, made new, then we
walk in newness of life, this new life is what St. Paul had written about to
Roman Christians in his epistle Rom:6:4, we
are now alive in and in Jesus.
We are assured and have hope of a life in
eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ, we have hope. A real hope. A hope that is
ours’ here and now not just someday in eternity to come, but an all-new life
here and now upon the Earth and beyond rather than an eternity without Jesus
and without hope.
To Whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory mystery among the gentiles; which is Christ in you, the
hope of Glory" Col:1:27
This hope sustains us even in the face of
adversity and crisis, ever with our eyes focused on Jesus, as the One, who
gives us such hope, Rom:8:18-25.
In Eternity
In the end, what has been made true
is that the New Creation which he has made us to be, will be ours’
completely and fully. It will be what Jesus has already accomplished for us all
fully experienced. All things have been made new in Christ .
All Things Made New in Jesus. All those things of this life, and even
the old creation will all pass away, leaving only the New Creation. Rev: 21:1-3.
These words speak of things that are, in
truth, beyond the minds of any of us to fully take in and comprehend.
God gives each of us just a glimpse of this
eternity that is for each who will but freely receive it. Yet, there will
be some, that will reject this freely given Gift of God, they love
their sin more than their Savior.
But God has called us to have all things
made new in his Holy Son Jesus, even here and now and on into Eternity, this is the hope of all who have come to
believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Benediction: May we each and all live in that newness
of life found only in Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
Rev.Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma.
"If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not
About Anything"
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