September 12, 1993, at the Trinity
Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you
to turn with me in your own Bibles to 2 Corinthians, Paul's second
letter to the church at Corinth, that book in our Bibles that
we commonly identify as 2 Corinthians and chapter 5 And follow as I
read in your hearing verses 10 through 21, 2 Corinthians 5 and
verse 10. For we must all be made manifest
before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the
things done in the body according to what he hath done whether
it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the fear
of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto
God, and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves
unto you, but speak as giving you occasion of glorying on our
behalf that ye may have wherewith to answer them that glory in
appearance, and not in heart. For whether we are beside ourselves,
it is unto God, or whether we are of sober mind, it is unto
you. For the love of Christ constrains
us, because we thus judge that one died for all, therefore all
died, and He died for all that they that live should no longer
live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died
and rose again. Wherefore we henceforth know
no man after the flesh, even though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Wherefore, if any
man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are
passed away. Behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the
ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ. reconciling the world unto himself,
not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors, therefore,
on behalf of Christ. As though God were entreating
by us, we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to
God. Him who knew no sin he made to
be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness
of God in him." Now for most Americans, and that includes
all but a very small handful in this auditorium this morning,
Memorial Day weekend in the month of May each year marks the first
hurrah of the beginning of the vacation season. And the Labor
Day weekend in early September marks the last hurrah of that
same season. Well, we have just passed the
last hurrah and have entered the more steady state schedule
of the fall months in our individual family, and church life. And with this reality, those
of us who minister the Word of God regularly look forward to
the fact that the vast majority of God's people and their families
will be present at the stated meetings with relatively little
disruption from vacations visits to family conferences and visits
to sister churches and all of the other things that can make
the summer months so disruptive. New Sunday school classes are
in place and began today with many of you undertaking a new
curriculum of instruction And with all of these things, we
will be returning to our regular, consecutive expositions here
in the morning and evening ministries of the Word of God. However,
lest we lose sight of the most essential the most fundamental,
the most crucial issue of all, I have chosen to take the first
Lord's Day morning after the last hurrah, not to take up again
the manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church, that we shall do, God
willing, next Lord's Day, but rather I want to draw all of
your minds to that central life and death issue that undergirds
all of the ministries of every facet of the life of this church,
and which, though it cannot be brought into the center of our
focus in a concentrated, explicit way in every service, nonetheless,
It is always there is the undergirding burden and passion of every ministry. And I know of no better text
that brings that central, fundamental issue into sharp and definitive
focus than does the text to which I direct your attention this
morning, 2 Corinthians 5.17 and 18a. Wherefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. The old things are passed away,
behold, they are become new. But all things are of God. Now what is that underlying central
concern? that is there throbbing through
all of the ministries in the Sunday school. In the adult class,
in the morning and evening, preachments, when we come to the table of
the Lord, what is that central issue that is always there, undergirding,
surrounding, suffusing the various ministries, though of necessity
it cannot be the explicit and central focus of every opportunity
of teaching and preaching? Well, basically it is the issue
of true and saving religion. It is the issue of what does
it mean to really be right with God? What does it mean to be
ready for that solemn hour when you and I will be made manifest? We will be displayed before the
entire moral universe in the presence of God at the judgment
seat of Christ. What is true, vital, saving religion? And furthermore, do you and I
possess it. That's the central issue. That's
the undergirding reality that pulses and throbs through all
of the ministries. And lest we lose sight of it
here on this first Lord's Day after the last hurrah of the
summer months, I want us to concentrate our attention on that issue,
true and saving religion, what is it and do you possess it? And our guide in answering that
question will be the text that I've already announced, 2 Corinthians
5, 17 and 18a. First of all, consider with me
from this text the essence or the heart of all saving religion. If we have to boil down everything
that the Bible tells us, about the things that constitute true
and saving religion. The knowledge of God in Christ
that will stand us in good stead now, in death, and ultimately
in the day of judgment. What is it? Well, our text answers. Look at the words. Wherefore,
if any man is in Christ, And that little prepositional
phrase, in Christ, is perhaps the most important prepositional
phrase in the whole of the Bible with reference to this issue
of what is the essence or the heart of saving religion. For the Apostle Paul, the answer
is, saving religion consists in the reality of being in Christ. That little phrase, in Christ,
in him, in whom, is found no fewer than approximately 150
times in the New Testament. Most of the references coming
from the pen, or from the mouth, and the one who became the penman
of the Apostle Paul. That little phrase, in Christ,
means essentially to be in union with Christ, to be united to
Christ. And therefore, according to the
Apostle, by the inspiration of the Spirit, the very essence
or heart of saving religion is to be in Christ or united to
Christ. Now notice with me from the text
two things about this union. First of all, its object, and
then the nature of that union. Who is the object of this saving
union? Paul says, if any man is in Christ. And for Paul, the term Christ
was not just another proper name, such as we speak of John or Mary
or in the Hispanic world, address someone by his last or family
name and call him Pinero or Garcia or some other similar name. Before
the Apostle Paul, steeped in his Jewish heritage, the word
Christ was nothing less than a patent declaration of his consciousness
that Jesus of Nazareth was the long-promised Anointed One. He was the Messiah. And in this very context, he
leaves no doubt in our minds as to his understanding of the
identity of this Christ. In chapter 4, in verse 4, he
designates him as the very image of God. Notice 2 Corinthians
4, 4. The God of this world hath blinded
the minds of the unbelieving, lest the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Paul declares that this Christ
is none other than the very image, the very representation in space-time
history of God incarnate. He is the Lord in verse 5 of
the same chapter. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus as kurios. as Lord, as the Sovereign of
the Universe, as the Jehovah Jesus, for there are text after
text which in the Old Testament references made to Jehovah that
are picked up and directly applied to Jesus in the New Testament
and again particularly by the Apostle Paul. So that the object
of this union is the one whom he designates as the very image
of God, who is the Lord. He is the one who was crucified,
but has been raised from the dead, verse 14 of chapter 4,
knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us
up with you and present us, raise us up with Jesus and present
us with you. He is the Jesus who is the judge
of every single human being who has ever lived. Verse 10 of chapter
5, we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 21 of this chapter, he
is the sinless one, him who knew no sin. He is the substitutionary
sin bearer. He was made sin on our behalf. Our trespasses were reckoned
to Him. They were imputed to Him. You see, when Paul says, if any
man is in Christ, and gives us the very essence of saving religion
as union with Christ, he does not leave us the luxury of saying,
well, whoever Christ is to you, so long as you trust Him, all
is well. Whatever He is to you is of relatively
little importance, so long as your heart goes out in sincere
trust in Jesus, whoever He is to you. Oh no, when He said,
if any man be in Christ, there was tremendous theological content
to the object of that saving union. It was the Christ of biblical
revelation. The Christ who is the eternal
Word, who was with God and was and is God. The Christ who took
to Himself a true human soul and body, who lived in our condition
yet without sin. He is the one who died and rose
from the dead and shall raise all men in the last day as we
read in John 5 in our reading this morning. He will sit as
the judge of all men in the last day. He is the substitutionary
sin bearer. In other words, when Paul says
that the very essence, the heart of saving religion is union with
Christ, The object of that union is the Christ of full-orbed biblical
revelation. And where a man is ignorant of
the Christ of the Bible, or where a man or woman deliberately makes
a Christ spun out of the stuff of his own imaginations, there
is, nor there can be, no true saving religion. for the object
of that union is the Christ of biblical revelation and then
the nature of that union when Paul said if any man be in Christ
to Paul what was the nature of that union how did someone get
into Christ was he brought into Christ by heredity by having
the good fortune of being born of good Christian bloodlines? Having good religious background
and instruction? Are we in Christ by virtue of
heredity? Know, for Paul knew well the
teaching of Scripture, that those who are brought into union with
Christ are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God, John 1 and verse 13. Well, are they in Christ sacramentally? Because they happen to have partaken
of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper? Surely
the Apostle Paul was under no such delusions, for he said,
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Surely,
if the waters of baptism administered at the hands of an apostle would
bring a person into union with Christ, he would get as many
people in contact with the water as was humanly possible. But
he says, my commission is not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect. It is not. a union that comes
to pass by proper bloodlines, by the sacraments, nor by man-made
rituals such as we have in our day, raising a hand, walking
an aisle, doing what I call decisional calisthenics. When a man walks
an aisle in an evangelistic meeting, all he's proving is that he has
two good feet and two good legs that are functioning. It proves
nothing else. When a man raises a hand and
says, pray for me, it means nothing else but that he has a hand and
can raise it. There is not a shred of evidence
in the Bible that one gets into Christ by some man-made ritual
of walking an aisle, praying a prayer, parrot-like after someone
has placed it in a man's ear and mind. No, the Bible tells
us that the nature of this union is such that only God Himself
can effect it. Turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter
1 and let the scriptures themselves tell us the nature of this union.
It is not hereditary, sacramental, decisional, connected with a
physical act. 1 Corinthians 1.30, but of Him. Who is the Him? It is God, that
no flesh should glory before God, but of Him. By His doing
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Who is it that places a sinner
into union with Christ? It is God Himself and God alone. But of Him, that is by His sovereign,
gracious, almighty operation, sinners who by nature are in
Adam and in a state of death, 1 Corinthians 15, 22, as in Adam,
all die. As we are in union with Adam
in a state of death, it is God himself and God alone who can
take us out of that union with Adam and place us into union
with Christ in the realm of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. This is why earlier in this very
chapter, 1 Corinthians 1, when Paul describes the conversion
of the Corinthians, he uses the language of verse 9. Look at
it. God is faithful. God is trustworthy. Through whom you were called
into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. He leads the Corinthians to believe
that if they have been incorporated into Christ, into a shared life,
that's what the word fellowship means. God has been faithful. He doesn't say, you have been
wise, the evangelist was persuasive, the apostle was overpowering
in his influence. He said, no, if you are in fellowship
with Christ, in saving union with Christ, it's because God
is faithful, trustworthy, trustworthy in his promise made way back
in Genesis 3 15, that he would take the initiative to bruise
the head of the serpent, that he would secure a seed for the
woman, He is to be trusted when he made promises to his own son,
as recorded in Isaiah 53, that if he would take the posture
of the suffering servant and pour out his soul unto death,
he should have a vast sea, the spiritual sea, and that the pleasure
of the Lord would prosper in his hand. He should see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. He prays at the right hand of
the Father. He says, I pray not for the world,
but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world. I
pray not only for them, but for those who shall believe on me
through their word. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and there shall be one
foal and one shepherd. No, the nature of this union
is such that it is God himself and God alone who can effect
it. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, graciously and powerfully conspire and act
to take sinners out of their death, condemned union in Adam,
and place them into a life and liberated union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that is the essence, the
heart of saving religion. It is to be united with Jesus
Christ, this Christ of biblical revelation by a union which has
no explanation but that the God who spoke galaxies into being
out of a world out of the womb of nothing and upholds those
galaxies by the word of his power has worked in this sinner and
so worked in him as to unite him vitally to Jesus Christ so
that I am in Christ Not standing off apart from him,
pointing to him, saying, I believe he lived, he died, he rose. And that's the beginning, middle,
and end of it. Oh no, believing he lived, died, and rose. I have
embraced him to be mine. I have, by the grace and operation
of the Holy Spirit, seen such beauty in Christ that I've embraced
Him as the supreme object of my trust, as the supreme unrivaled
object of my affections. I take him in as my prophet to
teach me, my priest to forgive and intercede for me, my king
to rule over me. I am in Christ and by the Spirit
he dwells in me. That's the essence, the heart
of all savings. Fall short of that and whatever
else you have, it will find you destitute in the day of judgment.
But then, secondly, notice the effect of saving religion. For
the apostle not only sets forth in this text the heart or the
essence of all saving religion, union with Christ, but the effect
of it. Look at the language. If any,
and in the original it's not the word man, could be rendered
if any, any person, man, woman, boy or girl, if any is in Christ,
And if you have one of the older translations or any of the newer
ones that try to tell you when they've supplied words that are
not there in the original to give it smoother English, you'll
find the words in italics. He is, or there is, a new creation. The words are not there in the
original. A literal rendering would be this. Wherefore, if
any, in Christ, new creation. exclamation point. It's as though
the apostle in writing this letter, describing what happens when
a sinner is brought out of Adam into Christ, begins to write,
if any in Christ, puts his pen down and says, now how shall
I describe it? With what imagery? With what
analogy? With what comparison shall I
set forth the effect of a sinner who by nature and birth was in
Adam, dead, condemned, bound, led about by the God of this
world, now in Christ, forgiven, alive, with a heart to love and
serve the living God? How shall I describe the effect
of this union with Christ? I don't know how long he sat
and pondered before the Spirit of God moved him to pick up his
pen, and then he writes these words, if any, in Christ. Dash. New creation. It's as though the concept of
the great cosmic activity of God described in Genesis 1 and
2, that that alone could even begin to point to the reality
of the effect of a sinner coming into union with a mighty Savior. He says the effect of saving
religion is a new creation. This is one of Paul's favorite
images of saving religion. Look at two other texts to buttress
that statement. In Ephesians chapter 2, the very
familiar words beginning with verse 8. For by grace have you
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, that no man should glory, for
we are his workmanship, now here's our word, created in Christ Jesus. There's the prepositional phrase,
in Christ, and in close conjunction with it, created in Christ. And that doesn't refer to our
original creation. For in our original creation,
we were conceived and born not in Christ, but in Adam. in a
state of sin. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
cries David, and in sin did my mother conceive me. He's referring
to their conversion, which comes by grace through the instrumentality
of faith, and even that faith not self-generating, but the
gift of God. And all of this displays that
we are the workmanship of God, a workmanship that is not Pat's
work on old Adam, it's a new creation. We're a workmanship
that is not the old patched up, not the old repaired. It is a workmanship of new creation. Created anew in Christ Jesus
for good works which God aforeprepared that we should walk in them.
Again, at the end of the book of Galatians, notice how this
imagery of creation grips the apostle, he has been hurling
out thunderbolts, both of polemic and invective against those who
have tried to muddy up the clear waters of the gospel of grace
with circumcision and ceremonies and Jewish rituals. And at the
end of that epistle that is white-hot with Paul's passion for the purity
of the gospel, he says in verse 14, Far be it from me to glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the
world has been crucified unto me and I unto the world. For neither is circumcision anything,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." Paul says, the end
of my discussion is this. I glory in an immolated, crucified
Savior. And in my relationship to that
Savior, this world system, with all of its evil, yes, with even
its religious rituals that have been buried in Christ's tomb,
I have been crucified to that world, and it unto me And he
said, the only thing that counts as the true and vital religion
is not circumcision or uncircumcision, but this one thing. Are you a
new creation? He said, that's the thing that
counts. Not the presence or absence of
Jewish rituals, but the presence or absence of the mighty creative
work of God in redemptive mercy. It is a new creation. That's
the effect of saving religion. It doesn't merely patch up old
Adam, redirect old Adam, or just stick a decision card in old
Adam's pocket. It makes new men and women, boys
and girls, makes new creations of them. Now why did Paul use
such an image? Well, I'm convinced, and I believe
I can demonstrate it from the Scriptures, because there are
at least two aspects of the effect of saving religion that the concept
of creation beautifully captures. And the first is the solitary
action of Almighty God. What the theologians call monergistic
salvation. Mono, one, as opposed to sinner,
together, synergistic. You see, in creation, you didn't
have a bunch of matter waiting around, tumbling amidst itself,
crying out, saying, Oh, living God, do something with us and
form us into something. No, no. You open up the pages
of your Bible and you read this. In the beginning, God. What was there before the beginning? Nothing but God. No matter. no galaxies, no world, no oceans,
no man. And God created, and how did
He create? He created ex nihilo, out of
nothing. By the word of His power, He
speaks and says, let there be light, and there was light. Let the dry land appear, and
it appeared. You see, the whole concept of
creation to Paul's biblical mindset underscores the solitary action
of Almighty God. Notice in verse 6 of chapter
4 how he connects this with salvation. This is no fanciful notion of
my own. Seeing it is God that said, a
direct reference to Genesis, light shall shine out of darkness. who shined not into, but who
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The God who
spoke into the spiggy and darkness of that primeval creative situation. There was darkness upon the face
of the deep, and God spoke. Out of the darkness light bursts
by the word of creative power, assisted by nothing. Now he says
in the same way, that God who said light shall shine out of
the darkness. You and I can shine light into
the darkness. Only Almighty God can make light
shine out of the darkness. He says He has shined in our
hearts. by a gracious, saving, creative
word of power. And so when he says, if any,
in Christ, and gives us the essence of saving religion as union with
Christ, the effect of it is a new creation. There has been a solitary
action of Almighty God in grace and power. And the second aspect
of creation that I believe is inherent in this imagery is the
efficacious nature of God's activity in creation. Whenever God spoke
a creative word in Genesis, what do you read after each speaking
of God? And it was so. And it was so. And it was so. And it was so. And it was so. God alone acted. And God acted what he spoke into
being, came into being according to his word. Now Paul says, if
any, in Christ. That's the essence of saving
religion, to be united to Christ. By the bond of faith on the part
of the sinner, by the bond of the spirit regenerated and indwelling
from the perspective of God. And what is the effect whenever
that union is present? There is a new creation. There has been action in which
God has so acted in sovereign, solitary power that there is
no analogy that does it justice but that of creation. And having
acted, what He intends to bring to pass has come to pass. It is so. Now I want to ask you
before we move on to the third observation in our text, what
in the world is there about you sitting here this morning? Boys,
girls, men and women, visitors, members, what is there about
you? The way you think about yourself,
the way you think about God, the way you think about right
and wrong, the world, things, people, what is there about the
way you act toward mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, wife,
work associates? What is there about what you
watch and don't watch on the television? What is there about
what you do and don't do with your money? What is there about
the total complex of your life that defies any other explanation
but this? that the God who spoke worlds
into being by the word of His power has made you a new creation
in Christ. What have you got in the total
complex of your life that defies any other rational explanation
but that the God who made the heavens and the earth has united
you to His Son and made you a new creation? You have a whole new
set of perspectives, and loves, and hates, and longings, and
aspirations, aversions, and desires, and associations, and actions,
and reactions. And with ever-increasing growth
and power, those new realities are working themselves out in
your life My friend, don't take this as just the rhetorical exercises
of a preacher. I ask you in the name of the
God of heaven, what is there about you that has no explanation
but that God's made you a new creature? I've got a church! Nah, that
doesn't wash. Hell will be full of people who
warm pews for a lifetime. I believe everything the Bible
says about Jesus. So do the demons and they tremble.
Not enough. Well, I made it this profession
and gave up the cigarettes and chasing women. Well, I'm glad
you gave up your cigarettes so you don't get lung cancer and
chasing women so you don't destroy yourself with social diseases
and destroy your family. But there'll be lots of people
who don't smoke and aren't whoremongers that'll roast in hell. No, no,
my friend, there's got to be something more. What is there
about you that defies explanation, that God's made you a new creation
with new eyes to see glories you never saw before, with new
affections that are set upon things you never loved before
and never hated before? That's the great question. That's
the effect of all saving religion. A new creation. It doesn't say,
wherefore if some are in Christ, they are. No. Wherever there
is true and saving religion, there is a new creation. We've
looked at the heart of saving religion, union with Christ,
the effect of it, new creation. But now thirdly, note from the
text, the fruit or the manifestation of it. The fruit or the manifestation
of saving religion. What does the text say? The old
things are passed away. Behold! Stand back! Throw up your hands in amazement! They are become new. The Apostle
uses different tenses in the verbs here. When he says, the
old things are passed away, He uses a form of the verb which
means they are passed away radically, decisively, once for all. And then when he says, Behold,
they are become new, he uses a form of the verb which means
at a point in time they became new and they remain in that state
of newness. Much like we might say, I threw
away my old couch And we've bought a new one that now sits in our
family room. Throwing away the old couch was
a decisive once-for-all act. The bringing in of the new began
at a given point in time, but the effect of it remains to this
day, and if anyone doubts it, they go to your family room and
there it is. Now that's what Paul is saying here. that the
fruit or the manifestation of saving religion is that the old
things have passed. There has been a fundamental,
although not perfect, a radical, though not entirely consummated,
putting away of the old, and an introduction and a steady
state possession of the new. That's what he's saying, is the
fruit or the manifestation of saving religion. Now, that brings
the question, what are the old things that pass, once and for
all, definitively, radically, fundamentally, and what is the
new that is introduced and remains and abides? Well, look into the
very context of this statement and I can set before you several
things. Look, first of all, at what we call the old view of
Christ and his work In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4, Paul says
that the God of this world, that's the devil, has blinded the minds
of the unbelieving. Now notice where Satan's blinding
work is focused. Not on the so-called arts and
sciences and on the intricacies of advanced mathematics and computer
technology, no, no, he focuses his blinding work on one precise
point. The God of this world hath blinded
the minds of the unbelieving that the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not
dawn upon them. No light rays from the glory
inherent in Jesus Christ. Glory is the outshining of the
perfections of God. God's glory is like the rays
of the sun. They are the outshining of the
sun's heat and glory and light. So the glory of God that is in
the face of Christ is constantly going forth from Christ. When
you turn to the book of the Revelation, John had a vision of that glory
and it struck him down on his face. Other pictures of the Lamb
in the midst of the throne makes him the object of the worship
and adoration of the four and twenty elders, of the angels,
and of all of the creatures that cry out blessing and glory and
honor. Beyond to him that sitteth upon
the throne and unto the Lamb, You see, there is a glory that
constantly exudes from Jesus Christ, the glory of his person
as the God-man. the one who, though rich, became
poor for our sakes, that we, through his poverty, might be
rich. There is a glory that breaks forth from his life of selfless
abandonment to the needs of others, up late healing, up early praying,
constantly, as Peter said, going about doing good, healing the
sick, raising the dead. There is a glory in that horrible
baptism of suffering to which he subjected himself. when he
willingly, voluntarily said, not my will, but thine be done.
and undertook to take into himself the unleashed fury of God against
the sins of his people. There is a glory in his immolated
body, in every wound that streams blood, in every matted piece
of his beard, mingled with blood and spittle. There is the glory
of one who voluntarily dies for the unjust that he might bring
us to God. There's a glory in Joseph's empty
tomb, that tomb at which the angel stood and said, he is not
here. He is risen from the dead. As
he said, there is a glory as he passes into the heaven. Wherever
you look at him, there is the outshining of the perfections
of who he is and what he's done for sinners enough to ravish
and overcome the heart of any rational creature. But by nature,
when we're in the old creation, in Adam, we hear of Christ and
say, oh humbug. We hear of Christ and say, oh
that's interesting. Or we may hear of Christ and
say, that's a lot of humbug. But whatever we say of Christ,
from the most crass, coarse, ungodly, blasphemous, negative
things, to the most kind, accommodating, gentle things, One thing is true
of us who are still in Adam. We see no bursting forth of the
radiance of God in His person and work that captures our hearts
and makes us His willing bond slaves. That we never see. The God of this world blinds
us. We can get excited about anything and everything, but
Jesus crucified. But if you're in Christ, you
know what's happened? The old is past. The old view of Christ
and His work is past. The new has come and it remains. And what is the new? Look at
verse 6 of chapter 4 again. Seeing it is God that said light
shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? in the
face of Jesus Christ. You see, Paul said he was saved
not by the light that came from heaven on the road to Damascus
that blinded his physical eyes. He said, I got saved by an inward
spiritual light that opened my spiritually blinded eyes. And
when I saw the very glory of God in the face of Christ inwardly,
spiritually, by the operation of the Spirit, what was the first
response of a heart that beheld Christ in His glory? Who art
thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. What are His first words? Lord,
what will you have me to tell you? No man ever saw the glory
of God in the face of Christ, and clung to self-will as the
rule of his life. No man! No woman! No boy, nor girl! You behold
the glory of God in the face of Christ, and you add it, and
say, You're worthy of all my trust and all my love and all
my devotion and all my loyalty. Dear Lord, I give myself to you. It is all that I can do. Now, if any's in Christ, He is
a new creation. That's always the effect. And
what's the fruit of it? The old is past. The old view
of Christ is gone. The new has come. And we trust
Him implicitly as our Savior. We bow to Him unreservedly as
our Master and our Lord. And therefore, the word of God
can say of every believer, whom, having not seen, you love. And the proof of love is, if
you love me, you will keep my commandments, and we are joined
to Christ in a bond of faith and love and obedience. Does
that happen to you? Is that fruit or manifestation
of saving religion in your heart and in your life today? Furthermore,
the old focus of concern Or the old focus of preoccupation goes,
and a new one comes. What's the old one? Look at chapter
4 again, verse 18. Paul speaks of his relative indifference
to all his sufferings. Why? Why does he do this? 2 Corinthians
4.18, While we look not on the things which are seen, but the
things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
There was a time when Paul was totally preoccupied with what
could be seen. His whole life, both religious
and personal and social, was taken up with his standing before
the eyes of men as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. He was concerned to outstrip
his peers in zeal and in knowledge and religious activity. His mind
and heart was focused upon this present world, but he says, no
longer. My gaze is not on the things
that are seen. He says there's another set of
things. They're not notions. They're not wispy phantoms. They're
things. This pulpit is a solid, substantial
thing. Oh yes, I know that it's made
up of atoms and there's more nothing than there is something.
Yes, I know. But for our purposes, this is
a thing. If you don't believe it, whack
your head on it and you'll have a doctor putting stitches in
it. And go tell the doctor Nothing did this. No, it's a substantial
thing. I can touch it. I can feel it.
I've made my knuckles blue on it from time to time. Paul says
there's another third of things just as substantial, but these
human eyes can't see them. Human fingers can't touch them. Human tongues can't taste them,
and human noses can't smell them. But those who are new creatures
in Christ have been given a set of spiritual hands and eyes and
tongues and noses and ears. And their gaze is upon the things
that are not seen. Christ at His right hand, the
things that are above, a life of holiness, the hope of resurrection,
the age to come, the realities of a new heavens and a new earth,
the smile of Christ, the company of His people. Paul says, that's
why the things down here are not of concern to me. Sure, I
have had rough at times. I've had them stone me. I've
had them throw me in jail. I've been shipwrecked. I've been
beaten. He says, light the ship. Why?
Was he a Stoic? No. He was a new creature in
Christ. A new creature who knew what
it was to have the old focus of concern gone. The older past, behold, they
are become new. You see, no one will be ushered
into the new heavens and the new earth in the new age who
doesn't have his fundamental heart's affection put there in
this age. You hear me? This idea, you can
have your heart wedded to this earth now and go to heaven then,
is sheer nonsense. God never takes a man bodily
to heaven, but what he first of all takes is his heart and
his affections there. For where your heart is, where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And where
your heart is, that's where you're going to be. And that's why it
takes a mighty creative work of God. We're so bound to what
we can see, the smiles of our peers, the frowns of our peers,
their mocking words. My heart grieves to see how slavishly
some of you adhere to the latest fads and styles, no matter what
their origins are. You'll allow yourselves in the
summer months to go to degrees of nakedness that ten years ago
would have landed you in jail. Oh, I wouldn't be considered
old-fashioned and have a grand bathing suit. Oh, you mean the
acceptance of people is more important than the eye of God? What is your set of values? I
don't want anyone to look twice at me because I'm not quite with
the latest bizarre styles that are not morally neutral. Reflect
a view of reality that is all filled with cacophony and disharmony. My friend, you're a slave to
the smiles and frowns of your peers. You're not a new creature
in Christ. And the sooner you face it, the
better. Because the old focus of concern and preoccupation
is gone. When you become a new creature
in Christ, you now are looking fundamentally, primarily upon
the things that are not seen. They're the eternal things. And
when those who would mock at me and those who would sneer
at me now have long since been consigned to hell if God does
not save them, I'll be shining with the redeemed and angels
and all of the glorified saints forever and ever. Utter a few
frowns for a few more years down here. Third aspect in which the old
will pass and the new will come is found very clearly in verse
15. Look at it. That he died for all that they
who live, 5.15, should no longer live unto themselves, but unto
him who for their sakes died and rose again. You see, Christ
did not die just to satisfy the wrath of God that we might be
accepted with God and have all our sins righteously pardoned. Blessed reality, though that
is, it says He died for all for whom He died, that those who
live from His death should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto Him. Now, what could be plainer? Jesus
Christ died to change the whole center of your life from self-blame. And He did not die in vain. And
wherever His death is applied with power to a sinner, that
sinner will find that the old has passed. No longer is the
fundamental orientation of life self, my desires, my appetites,
my passions, my standards, my ideas of right and wrong and
good and virtue and all of the rest. No, no. I turn from this
principle of self-centeredness and self-will. And now it's not
religion and just rules. No. It's unto Him who died for
me and rose again. It's that person to whom I've
been united who becomes the focal point of my life. For me to live
is Christ. Look at verse 9 of chapter 5.
This is why Paul could say we make it our aim. It's a weak
translation. At least in contemporary English
it could be rendered. We are all so ambitious, whether
at home or absent. be well pleasing to Him. Oh,
I love to see someone driven by this holy ambition to please
Christ. I've seen young men and women
driven by the ambition to get into the military academy, have
a couple of nephews. One of them, from the time he
was about so high, his older brother made his way to West
Point and he had one obsession. I'm going to follow my brother
and get an appointment to West and everything he did. One of
the most focused kids I've ever seen. It frightened me at the
time. He's in West Point. I thank God
in the midst of that, God's laid hold of him, and his great ambition
now is not to be a rah-rah soldier, it's to be a servant of Christ. But oh, how focused he was. You
couldn't be in his presence very long before you knew. You couldn't
think of his name and not think West Point. military officer. It oozed out of him. And my friend,
when Christ has laid hold of you so that you can say with
Paul, we're ambitious to please him, you can't be around such
a person long before something of Christ is going to ooze out.
When a young man starts whispering sweet nothings in your ear, young
lady who belongs to Christ, it won't be long before he knows
you tell him, look, this body isn't mine to do with what I
please. It's been purchased by my Savior. Keep your hands off. When somebody comes with the
latest girly magazine, hey, have you seen the latest magazine?
You say, look, sorry, fellas. My eyes are not free to look
on anything yours may be. They've been purchased by another.
You don't say, oh, that's against my religion or my father's religion. What a cop-out. You say, that
displeases my Lord. That's right. When the other
kids get together and brag on how they conned their parents,
You have the guts to speak up and say, hey you kids, let's
cut the baloney. We claim to be Christians, and
the fifth commandment says honor father and mother, and you're
willing to be nailed and nabbed by your peers in this church
as being Mr. or Ms. Goodybody. Why? Because you want to please Christ.
The old purpose for living is dead and buried. It is no longer
living unto self, acceptance of my person, having my way,
living out my desires. No, I have a focus, and that
focus is to live unto Christ. The old basis of evaluating people
is gone, verse 16. Our old position before God is
gone, no longer alienated and under condemnation, but reconciled
and accepted. Those are the fruits or the manifestations
of saving religion. And now I want to close in the
remaining three minutes on 18a. We've looked at the essence of
saving religion, union with Christ, the effect of it, new creation,
the fruit and manifestation of it, the old is past, the new
has come. Now what's the source of all
of it? Look at verse 18a. But all things are of God. Old things are passed away. Behold, they are become new,
and all the things that pertain to this marvelous transformation,
they are of God. God the Father who so loved that
He gave His Son. God the Son who died, the just
for the unjust. The One who knew no sin, being
made to sin on our behalf. God the Spirit who in our own
space-time history comes with and by the Word and opens our
eyes to see our lostness and our hell-deservedness and through
the Word shows us that Christ is exactly suited to all our
needs and powerfully works in us at disposition to turn from
sin and self and to throw ourselves upon Christ for mercy. while
embracing Christ as Lord and Life and Master. All things are
of God. So if you sit here this morning
and you can say, by the grace of God, Pastor, as you've preached
this morning, I've been able to sit here and say, Thank you,
Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I'm not what I know I one day
shall be, and I'm certainly not what I want to be. But bless
God, I'm not what I once was. I am a new creature in Christ. And this desire I have to deal
with sins that no one knows but God. This desire to humble myself
and go to my husband or wife and confess my sins of a sharp
word and irritability and insensitivity. This willingness to be humbled
before my children and at the table to tell them I'm sorry
that I've been irritable and unkind. This desire to be honest
to the penny in my place of business. This is not of me. This is God's
work in me. This desire to be as pure in
the deep chambers of my thought life as I am in the sanctity
of my marriage bed in my relationship to my wife. This is not of myself. This is of God. This desire that
whatever I have and whatever I shall ever be would redound
to the glory and praise of Christ. This desire that this body that
God has given me be used as His purchased possession, not a playground
for my own passions or the passions of others. This is not of myself. This is of God. This willingness
for me to face patterns ingrained in me by nature, by bad example
and poor training, that as a mature adult I've got to wrench every
fiber and cell of my being from my own natural inclinations to
be disciplined, to get out of bed, to do my duties as a workman
and a provider, as a keeper of my home, I have no explanation
for my determination to do the will of God at any cost if it
means I must trample on my own incarnation a thousand times
a day. Pastor, there's no explanation
but God's made me a new creature. Is that what you've been able
to say? Or have you sat there scratching your head inwardly
saying, what in the world is that man talking about? I've
gone to church, I believe what the Bible says, and I made a
decision. I thought that's all there was,
my friend. That isn't all there is. Maybe
God's brought you here this morning because in mercy he doesn't want
you to go to the day of judgment and have that flimsy, moth-eaten,
corrupt, pseudo-Christian experience shown up for what it is. By the
word he's shown you. You see it this morning. It stinks.
It's moth-eaten. You say, it's not worthy to be
held now, let alone be held up to God. Go to God and say, Oh
God, you found me out in the word this morning. The preacher
made it plain from the word. It's of you that men get into
Christ. God, you work in me. Oh God,
you have mercy on me. You who sent your son for sinners. You who can change any sinner. Oh God, have mercy on me. And have dealings with that God
who is the source of all saving religion. And you have his promise. He shall seek me and find me
in the day that you search for me. with all your heart. Seek
the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
And let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy. And to
our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Dear people, as we enter
the fall months, if God spares us and delays the coming of his
Son, Underneath all of the detailed instruction that will take us
in many directions, remember there's an underlying burden
and concern, and it is that you have a saving union with Christ. If you do not have it, seek it
at the only place that can be found, and seek it today. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful
for the scriptures that are a lamp unto our feet and a light to
our pathway, a lamp and a light on this most critical issue of
what it means to have true and saving religion. We pray that
the Holy Spirit will so accompany the Word that many, many, O God,
will mark this day as the day when they were brought into Christ. Gracious God, have mercy, have
mercy, we pray, that your word may not return unto you void,
but may accomplish that whereunto you have sent it. Hear our cry. We plead through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.