WHERE DO YOU STAND?
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
(Amplified Bible)
Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
Intro: (Rom 1:20-25)
v20: Christ’s eternal power and divinity have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks)… (That includes us because we were made in His image.) So we don’t have an excuse to walk contrary to His teachings…
v21-22: When you knowingly dishonor God’s Word, you become a fool deceiving yourself…
v23: We give up our Christ-like nature for the nature of the world…
v24: As a result, God give you up in the lusts of your hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies
v25: We would rather live a lie instead of walk in the truth… We would rather worship and served the creature rather than the Creator…
We’re living in a day where the children of God must take a stand… Are we going to stand for truth or live a lie…? (Text…) If we are truly in Christ, there ought to be evidence of the change in our life; if we truly are exemplifying the words of the Apostle Paul, and are truly new creatures in Christ, then we must come to grips with the fact that…
I. YOU ARE NOT THE SAME
Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether)…
- “If…” a conditional word, a prerequisite (something must happen before this applies to you…
- If you are not in Him (Jesus) this doesn’t apply to you
II. YOU BECOME DEAD TO SELF
The old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away …
- Instead of letting the old pass away, we like to put it away for safe keeping…
- (Problem…) If you just put it away, it’s easy to pull it back out again…
- If you’re doing the same thing before you came to Christ after you came to Him, you’re NOT dead to self…
III. YOU BECOME ALIVE TO WHAT IS NEW
Behold, the fresh and new has come …
- There ought to be a difference in your character
- You ought not to be doing the same things you did before you came to Christ.
