2 Corinthians 5:14-17.            You are a new person/creation??                    10/3/13

 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, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 'Christ love compels us because we are convinced that Jesus died for all'. A very interesting statement, that is worthy of much thought and meditation. Now for Paul, there was no choice therefore, with regard to the implications for his life. The love that Jesus had for him was so great that he just had to live and speak of nothing else but Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.

 For Paul the 'old life’ has gone, and the new has come. Because of Jesus' life saving death he has no choice now but to push aside his old way of living. Now he is compelled 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.

 However, 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; this new creation that we now are in Jesus? Or do we think that the ways of this world are where living is really at? Do we really believe that Jesus died for us in order that we should no longer live for self - but for the Lord? Are we his ambassadors? Serious questions, with far reaching implications.

I think we all would have to agree that we 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 just to make church regularly, far less to live out this new life every day. We have trouble understanding the relationship between what God has done for us through Jesus Christ 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 now live as we please - without regard for God's Word; or we think that the way we live our lives is going determine whether we are acceptable or not. We seem to want to hang on to so much of that old lifestyle that is not Christian. We want to feel as though we are in charge of our own lives. We want to be involved and do the things that we want do, even though 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.

 Even for me it is a struggle. I too fail and get distracted. I am not the pastor that I should be. Many times I would like to run and hide - to bury myself in 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 weaknesses and 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 for him and for his kingdom.

 We have been made right with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. We have been brought back into God's family and have been given this message to now go and give to others: to go and live and be the person that God wants us to be. He even promises to be with us and help us to do this.

However it is struggle, because we too often fail to look to Jesus Christ, and instead look to ourselves and our own abilities: distracted by the things around us and by our own failings. We like Paul seem to get pulled this way and that.  The good that I would want to do, I don’t do and the things that I know that I should not do, I find myself doing. But too often we don’t even try: We just live for the moment and what we feel like doing.

 The reason that we have this problem is that we fail to come to grips with the depth and extent of Christ's love for us. Here we need to firstly think of the reality of who we really are as we stand before the Lord. We need to understand how utterly hopeless and helpless we are without God and how totally undeserving we are of his help because of our sin.

 There is absolutely nothing in us that makes us acceptable to him. All we deserve is the full extent of God's punishment. We deserve to be cut off from God and anything good forever. We deserve to die - both physically and spiritually.

 However, God's love would not allow that to happen. Despite who we are, he cares too much for us, so he sent his Son Jesus into our world to die the death that should have been ours. Though he had 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 to live with and for ourselves and destroy ourselves in the process. He died so that we no longer need to live with fear, loneliness and alienation.

 So no longer does our whole life have to revolve around the things that are so important to others in our society and which drags us 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 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 for us. All that side of life has been taken care of – removed – it hangs there on the cross.

 That self-centred approach to life is surely now in the past and we no longer need to be bound by it. We don't have to live as though God is some distant ogre out to get us and makes life difficult for us. Nor do we need to live for money, power and prestige that are so important to the rest of the society around us. We don't have to be sporting heroes or the woman who has made it to the top or whatever, so as to be acceptable and valuable.

 We no longer have to live in fear - fear of failure - fear of others – and fear of God. That side of life has died with Christ - it hangs there on the cross. Now we are free to live and be the people that God created us to be. Free to live for Christ and others. Free to love with the love that he has for us, which is focussed on the other instead of self.

 Yes we are now 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.

 So we can see that God has and continues to do great things for us in Jesus Christ. He is even 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 that we are free to be better people. That he has the power to enable us live and be new people – a new creation every day

 That is the love that Christ has for us - despite our miserable past. And that love now compels us to go forward and do the best that we can for our Lord. His love for us here and for all the others out there leaves us with no choice but to live for Christ and for others. To help them to see the greatness of what our God has done for us all.

So like Paul, let us go from here as new people; motivated by the love of Christ; and 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 simply for our own benefit, but seek with God's help to live for Christ, and for Christ alone. Let us set about working harder at bringing this message of Christ love to all those who so desperately need it. All the while continually keeping Jesus Christ as our main focus and source of inspiration for our lives: because after all he is our all – our everything.   To him be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN

 Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish