"The New is Here!"

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Last week, we talked about the change that comes to us when we give our lives to Christ. Today, we consider what can come from that change, where that change comes from, and what it can do for each of us.

George Whitefield, an 18th century Anglican priest and close personal friend of the Wesleys wrote: “The renewal of our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day. We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to pull down.”
-George Whitefield.
Whitefield was, of course, speaking of our lives, but the “new house” that he mentions is not just our own rebirth, but a newness in the way we live in Christ’s call on our lives.

Elton Trueblood, a noted 20th century American Quaker author and theologian wrote: “The renewal of the church will be in progress when it is seen as a fellowship of consciously inadequate persons who gather because they are weak, and scatter to serve because their unity with one another and with Christ has made them bold."
-- Elton Trueblood, The Incendiary Fellowship, (Harper and Row, 1967), 31.
Trueblood is proposing that renewal of the Church comes, not when the gifted and powerful get behind the movement, but when the weak and imperfect allow the Spirit to unite them and lead them to glory in the name of Jesus.

And that, I believe, is what Paul is leading up to in our text for today.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

The world is no longer our standard for living. That is the “old house” that Whitefield says needs to be torn down. And what is their standard? What is its basis? It is founded totally in personal ability, personal strength, and personal accomplishment.

Warren Bennis, scholar, author, and leadership consultant wrote:
"Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them."

But on the other hand, the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote:
“Accomplish but do not boast, accomplish without show, accomplish without arrogance, accomplish without grabbing, accomplish without forcing.”

Two very different world views of the approach that we all should take in striving for a goal. Paul, though, says that it isn’t the effort that we put forth – that neither humbleness nor great skill will ever win the day, but rather, it is the goal of allowing Christ Jesus to work his way in our lives that truly wins. And he even points out that Christ is the source of any accomplishment, of any new thing, of any new goal in our life. It’s about the way we live – no longer for ourselves, but for our crucified and risen Savior.

During Jesus’ ministry, people seemed to see Jesus in a worldly context. The people saw him as a great rabbi who could heal them and feed them, but even with the miracles that he could bring about, he was poor and humble, and could therefore could never be the Messiah – he was just a great teacher. The Pharisees saw him only as a poor, misguided, blasphemous man, and therefore he could never, in a million years, be Messiah – he wasn’t worthy.
But Paul says that not only is Jesus the Messiah, but he is Messiah in an entirely new context. He is no longer to be seen or sought after in a worldly way, but in one that brings newness - not just relief - to our worn out lives. The old ways, the way that people traditionally looked, perceived, understood, and even evaluated faith - that of being good enough, and doing enough good - has to be rejected, and replaced with a new, deeper and more profound trust in God’s ways.

It’s about allowing Christ to make us new – to become that “new creation” in him.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

In Romans 5:10, Paul writes that by Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, we have been reconciled to the Father, and in that reconciliation, there comes a guarantee of Salvation. The people of that day, as well as those of ours, still want to see the law, or their “good works”, as a pertinent means of deliverance, but Paul would have us know that it can be ours only be faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The problem with the world’s view is that sin is still sin, and the basis for defining sin never has been, and never will be, our prerogative! It is for God to define and for him to deal with, and we have no input or decision in the process. Once a sinner, always a sinner, and no amount of “good works” on our part can ever reverse that fact. The only decision that we have to make is whether we release our sin to Christ, or go on holding tight to our death sentence.

The message of Jesus Christ is that no matter what we do, the broken covenant can never be repaired by us. It is only by the grace of God. Now before you interpret the part that says the ministry of reconciliation has been given to us, as meaning that we can do the deed all on our own, we need to rethink the intent of Paul’s words. Our ministry is not in the reconciling per se, but in leading others to the source of the restoration – Jesus Christ.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:20-21

And since there is all of this renewal, all of this reconciliation, all of this ministry that has been offered and conveyed to us, we can no longer trust in the old ways of our “goodness”. The New Way of Jesus Christ has arrived, and will never be recalled. We are the “ambassadors” of the New Way to the people of earth.
Consider, for a moment, the purpose of being named an ambassador. In the political and diplomatic world, an ambassador is a representative of the ruling authority. They are given a certain amount of leeway to make decisions, but only within the purview of the national leadership. As God’s ambassadors, we are authorized to act on behalf of Almighty God, but only within his standards. The values and principles of others can no longer apply to us – it is a new way, as well as a new day, for all who would claim the name Christian.

That last verse has been a stumbling block for folks throughout the life of the Church. How can someone who has no sin become sin for those who are sin? It’s almost a riddle, isn’t it? It is certainly a difficult concept to grasp, but it is also true that we will never understand it if we try to make sense of it by the world’s standard. We have to look at it in, and as, the New Way that Paul is writing about.
Christ took our sin so that he could pay the blood penalty on our behalf – a penalty that we could never resolve on our own - and in return, since the penalty of sin is no longer ours, we can receive the righteousness that is purely an attribute of God – one which we could never gain on our own. Notice that the entire effort involves God and God alone, and is given totally for our benefit and ours alone.

This is the New Way. It makes little sense to the world, and when we accept this new way, there can be no room for the world’s Old. Paul says that “the old has gone, the new has come.” George Whitefield wrote that the “Old House” must be torn down, now that we have a “New House” to live in.

If the new has come into our lives, then the old can no longer have a place with us. That is the Good News of Easter, and the promise of Lent – the change in the Way of Life has finally come for all who will believe, and who will let the work of Christ change the life that is within them. Praise the Lord!