All Things New
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 is a time when some people feel that their lives are meaningless and without hope. Hope is dead for many and unfortunately even Christians can succumb to this sense of hopelessness.
Hopelessness
Hope for many is dead, 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 never seems to fulfill that deep need.
Dead Spiritually
Many people pass through life unaware of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on their behalf, that everything needed for salvation has been accomplished for them by and in Christ. This salvation is there for them , an all-new life is there ,they could experience it, yet they do not.
They do not know that a whole new life is there for them, 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 make away for 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. 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 follow 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 becomes 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 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 it’s 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 not just an event that Jesus is a part of. The bodily resurrection of Jesus only showed what has always been eternally true. Death can not hold him, 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 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 uses 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, 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 wrote of to Roman Christians in his epistle Rom:6:4, we are now alive and in Jesus.
We are assured 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.
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 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.
Benediction: May we each and all live in that newness of life found only in Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore .Amen.
Todd Crouch is Currently the Pastor of the Topinabee Community Church, in Topinabee, MI. He Was the Long Time Host of The Fountain of Life Broadcast, which was aired on RKP Radio in Washington, PA and streamed around the world. He is a Fourth Degree Master Rank Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and is a certified Tae Kwon Do instructor of Moke’s Martial Arts—Asian American Martial Arts Alliance. Todd studied Theology and Pastoral Ministry at Grace Communion Seminary. He is also a student of Church History, the America Civil War and Scottish History. He and his wife love to travel and the beach. They live in the Straits Area of Michigan. View Todd’s complete profile
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Correct, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His “(Romans 8;9).
Psalm 51:10 (ESV): “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”