2 Corinthians 5:14-17. You are new person/creation?? 18/6/06
{14} For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. {15} And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. {16} So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. {17} Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
'Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that Jesus died for all.' That is a very interesting statement; and one that is worthy of much thought, by all of us. Now for Paul, there was no choice: the love that Jesus had for him was so great that he just had to live and speak of nothing else but Christ and what he has done for us. For him the 'old life’ has gone, and the new has come. Because of Jesus' life saving death, Paul now has no choice but to push aside his old selfish way of living, and to now seek to live and be this new person that God has made him in Jesus Christ. No ifs - no buts: he is under the compulsion of Christ's love for him and all people.
But that was Paul: what about us here today? Does Christ's love compel us to live to the fullest the new life that has been given to us? Do we really want to be this new person and creation that we now are, because of the forgiveness that has been extended to us? Do we really believe that Jesus died for us in order that we should no longer live for self, but for the Lord? Do we see ourselves as his ambassadors? Serious questions, that have far reaching implications.
I think you would all have to agree, that we all fall a long way short of even grasping what these questions mean us; far less living them out. For many of us, we even find it difficult to just make church regularly, far less live out this new life every day. We have trouble understanding the relationship between what God has done for us through Jesus and his death and resurrection, and that new life that we are now called to live. We either seem to fall into the trap of thinking that we are saved, therefore we can live as please, within reason, without regard for God and his Word. Or else we think that the way we live our lives is going to determine whether we are acceptable to God or not.
But it is here that we see that we too often want to hang on to so much of our old selfish human lifestyle. We want to feel as though we are in charge of our own life. We want to be involved in and do the things that we want to do. And we so often get it wrong and mess things up for ourselves and for others. So it is a real struggle to try to live and be this new person: this new creation that Paul talks about here.
Even for me it is a struggle: I too get distracted and fail; I am not always the pastor that I should be. Many times I also would like to run and hide - bury myself into farming or something else. But I can't! Christ's love for me and the people of this area compels me to go forward and do what has to be done - despite my failings. I have to live and be that which by nature I am not. This new creation of God's is pushed forward to do some of what is needed to be done. I have been made right with God through Jesus and his death and resurrection; and have been brought back into God's family by God’s good grace. Since my baptism I have been given the responsibility to go and live and be the person that God wants me to be. Now I am called into this community to lead and guide you: to share, and to stand firmly on the truth of God’s Word. This is a struggle: and it is a struggle because I too often fail to look to and keep my focus on Jesus Christ. Instead I look to myself and my own abilities, or should I say lack of abilities; and are distracted by things around me and my own failings. I like Paul and you too, I am sure, seem to get pulled this way and that because the old nature, far too often, comes to the fore.
The reason that we have this problem in coming to a fuller understanding of these things, is that we fail to come to grips with the depth and extent of Christ's love for us. We again and again need to think first of all, of the reality of who we really are. We need understand how utterly hopeless and helpless we are without God; and how totally undeserving we are of God's help because of our sin. There is absolutely nothing in us that makes us acceptable to God. We all deserve the full extent of God's punishment and be totally forsaken by the Almighty God. We all deserve to be cut off from God and anything good forever. We all deserve to die - both physically and spiritually.
But God's love would not allow that; despite who are. He cares too much for us. So he sent the Christ into our world to die the death that should have been ours. Though he has done absolutely nothing wrong, he was punished for every single misdeed, sin and failing in our life. He died so that we no longer need live with and for ourselves and so consequently bring destruction on ourselves. He died so that we no longer need to live with fear, loneliness and alienation. Our whole life no longer has to revolve around the things that are so important to others in our society; and which ultimately drags them down.
Instead we can live with and for this One who has loved us so much and who has a much better way for us to live. In connection with Christ we have died to all that sin, wickedness and selfishness that hangs on to us and threatens to make life so difficult. No all that side of life has been taken care of – removed. It hangs there on the cross. Our failures, rejection by God and eternal death, has died - it now gone. It no longer binds us and hangs over us.
So now we don't have to live as though God is some distant ogre who is out to get us and make life difficult for us. Or that we have to struggle to know and work out what is important for us and how we can live. That we have to live for the prestige that is so important to our society around us. We don't have to be a sporting hero, the best business person, or whatever, so as to be acceptable and valuable. We don't have to live in fear - fear of failure – fear of others, and of God. That side of life has died with Christ - it hangs there cross.
Now we are free to live and be the people that God has created us to be. Free to live for Christ and for others. Free to love with the love that he has for us. We now are a new creation - a creation of love, joy, peace, patience, and all those other great gifts of God. The old has gone, and the new has come.
Yes, God has and continues to do great things for us in and through Jesus Christ. He is with us now guiding and empowering us to live as his people; strengthening and encouraging us all the way; assuring us over and over again that we are forgiven and accepted as his new creation. We are free to now be better people; and that He has the power to enable us to live and be new people every day.
That is the love that Christ has for us - despite our miserable past. And it is that love that now compels us to go forward and do the best that we can for our Lord. His love for us here, and for all others, leaves us with no choice but live for Christ and for others. To help them see the greatness of what God Almighty, himself, has done for us all.
Surely the love that Jesus has for us is so great that we just have to live and speak of nothing else but Christ and what he has done for us. For us the 'old life’ has gone, and the new has come. Because of Jesus' life saving death, we now have no choice but to push aside our old selfish way of living, and to now seek to live and be this new person that God has made us in Jesus Christ. No ifs - no buts: we are under the compulsion of Christ's love for us and for all people.
So like Paul, let us go from here as new people; motivated by the love that Christ has for us; totally convinced that Jesus, and his death and resurrection was and is all important for our changed life. Let us no longer live so selfishly, but instead seek, with God's help, to live for Christ, and Christ alone. Let us set about working harder at bringing this message of Christ and his love, to all those who so desperately need it. All the while continually keeping Jesus Christ as the main focus and source of inspiration for our lives. After all he has done for us, he is our all and everything. To him alone be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN
Pastor Roger Atze
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Toowoomba
.
{14} For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. {15} And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. {16} So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. {17} Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
'Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that Jesus died for all.' That is a very interesting statement; and one that is worthy of much thought, by all of us. Now for Paul, there was no choice: the love that Jesus had for him was so great that he just had to live and speak of nothing else but Christ and what he has done for us. For him the 'old life’ has gone, and the new has come. Because of Jesus' life saving death, Paul now has no choice but to push aside his old selfish way of living, and to now seek to live and be this new person that God has made him in Jesus Christ. No ifs - no buts: he is under the compulsion of Christ's love for him and all people.
But that was Paul: what about us here today? Does Christ's love compel us to live to the fullest the new life that has been given to us? Do we really want to be this new person and creation that we now are, because of the forgiveness that has been extended to us? Do we really believe that Jesus died for us in order that we should no longer live for self, but for the Lord? Do we see ourselves as his ambassadors? Serious questions, that have far reaching implications.
I think you would all have to agree, that we all fall a long way short of even grasping what these questions mean us; far less living them out. For many of us, we even find it difficult to just make church regularly, far less live out this new life every day. We have trouble understanding the relationship between what God has done for us through Jesus and his death and resurrection, and that new life that we are now called to live. We either seem to fall into the trap of thinking that we are saved, therefore we can live as please, within reason, without regard for God and his Word. Or else we think that the way we live our lives is going to determine whether we are acceptable to God or not.
But it is here that we see that we too often want to hang on to so much of our old selfish human lifestyle. We want to feel as though we are in charge of our own life. We want to be involved in and do the things that we want to do. And we so often get it wrong and mess things up for ourselves and for others. So it is a real struggle to try to live and be this new person: this new creation that Paul talks about here.
Even for me it is a struggle: I too get distracted and fail; I am not always the pastor that I should be. Many times I also would like to run and hide - bury myself into farming or something else. But I can't! Christ's love for me and the people of this area compels me to go forward and do what has to be done - despite my failings. I have to live and be that which by nature I am not. This new creation of God's is pushed forward to do some of what is needed to be done. I have been made right with God through Jesus and his death and resurrection; and have been brought back into God's family by God’s good grace. Since my baptism I have been given the responsibility to go and live and be the person that God wants me to be. Now I am called into this community to lead and guide you: to share, and to stand firmly on the truth of God’s Word. This is a struggle: and it is a struggle because I too often fail to look to and keep my focus on Jesus Christ. Instead I look to myself and my own abilities, or should I say lack of abilities; and are distracted by things around me and my own failings. I like Paul and you too, I am sure, seem to get pulled this way and that because the old nature, far too often, comes to the fore.
The reason that we have this problem in coming to a fuller understanding of these things, is that we fail to come to grips with the depth and extent of Christ's love for us. We again and again need to think first of all, of the reality of who we really are. We need understand how utterly hopeless and helpless we are without God; and how totally undeserving we are of God's help because of our sin. There is absolutely nothing in us that makes us acceptable to God. We all deserve the full extent of God's punishment and be totally forsaken by the Almighty God. We all deserve to be cut off from God and anything good forever. We all deserve to die - both physically and spiritually.
But God's love would not allow that; despite who are. He cares too much for us. So he sent the Christ into our world to die the death that should have been ours. Though he has done absolutely nothing wrong, he was punished for every single misdeed, sin and failing in our life. He died so that we no longer need live with and for ourselves and so consequently bring destruction on ourselves. He died so that we no longer need to live with fear, loneliness and alienation. Our whole life no longer has to revolve around the things that are so important to others in our society; and which ultimately drags them down.
Instead we can live with and for this One who has loved us so much and who has a much better way for us to live. In connection with Christ we have died to all that sin, wickedness and selfishness that hangs on to us and threatens to make life so difficult. No all that side of life has been taken care of – removed. It hangs there on the cross. Our failures, rejection by God and eternal death, has died - it now gone. It no longer binds us and hangs over us.
So now we don't have to live as though God is some distant ogre who is out to get us and make life difficult for us. Or that we have to struggle to know and work out what is important for us and how we can live. That we have to live for the prestige that is so important to our society around us. We don't have to be a sporting hero, the best business person, or whatever, so as to be acceptable and valuable. We don't have to live in fear - fear of failure – fear of others, and of God. That side of life has died with Christ - it hangs there cross.
Now we are free to live and be the people that God has created us to be. Free to live for Christ and for others. Free to love with the love that he has for us. We now are a new creation - a creation of love, joy, peace, patience, and all those other great gifts of God. The old has gone, and the new has come.
Yes, God has and continues to do great things for us in and through Jesus Christ. He is with us now guiding and empowering us to live as his people; strengthening and encouraging us all the way; assuring us over and over again that we are forgiven and accepted as his new creation. We are free to now be better people; and that He has the power to enable us to live and be new people every day.
That is the love that Christ has for us - despite our miserable past. And it is that love that now compels us to go forward and do the best that we can for our Lord. His love for us here, and for all others, leaves us with no choice but live for Christ and for others. To help them see the greatness of what God Almighty, himself, has done for us all.
Surely the love that Jesus has for us is so great that we just have to live and speak of nothing else but Christ and what he has done for us. For us the 'old life’ has gone, and the new has come. Because of Jesus' life saving death, we now have no choice but to push aside our old selfish way of living, and to now seek to live and be this new person that God has made us in Jesus Christ. No ifs - no buts: we are under the compulsion of Christ's love for us and for all people.
So like Paul, let us go from here as new people; motivated by the love that Christ has for us; totally convinced that Jesus, and his death and resurrection was and is all important for our changed life. Let us no longer live so selfishly, but instead seek, with God's help, to live for Christ, and Christ alone. Let us set about working harder at bringing this message of Christ and his love, to all those who so desperately need it. All the while continually keeping Jesus Christ as the main focus and source of inspiration for our lives. After all he has done for us, he is our all and everything. To him alone be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN
Pastor Roger Atze
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Toowoomba
.
posted by Roger at
7:54 pm
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