Faith in the New Creation - Study Notes

English

Faith in the New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17

Last weekend I was called away to Tennessee because of the unexpected and untimely death of my brother in law, Steve Dowell. He had a massive heart attack followed by his lungs collapsing. When the physicians went in to work with his lungs, they discovered cancer. Then, a few days later, he was gone. Steve was a Christian so we believe that his death was not the end of things. We will see him again. We believe that. The sting of death has been taken away for those who faith is in the resurrected Jesus. But, let me tell you this, it sure felt like there was still some sting in the sorrow we all felt.
As I walked with my family through the events of the past week I had a lot of time to consider what the Bible says about the many trials that are a part of this world. We know that the Bible teaches that the world God created in Genesis 1-2 did not have disease or handicaps or poverty or hunger or death. When people walked away from God, all sorts of trouble entered into our world. And, the struggles we have to deal with in our fallen world can be spiritual, emotional, psychological, relational, or physical.
But, we who trust Jesus know that God has promised he will not leave the world the way it is. In fact, Jesus, the one through whom the world was created, entered into his imperfect creation to re-create things. He lived the life we were meant to live though none of us has. Then he died the death all of us deserve but now do not have to. He died in our place – as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And he defeated sin and death through his resurrection. When he did, he pronounced the ultimate end of all that is evil and all that is wrong. Jesus will finish what he started. When he is done we will be in a world with no tears, no pain, no disability, no debt and no death.
Let me show you an illustration of this:
Creator launches re-creation Creator "perfects" his re-creation Re-creation Complete
(Jesus' Life, Death & Resurrection) (Our Experience Now) (All Things New)

Now, here's the part that baffles some Bible readers: The Bible often talks about this middle section, the period we are in now in which God is working out his process of re-creation, as if it has already happened. The completion of the work is so certain in the promises of God that God speaks of his glorious re-creation as already being accomplished. Let me show you just a few of the many places this happens in the NT:
You have been set free from sin in Romans 6:22a – but, as we all know, we sometimes still feel the strong tug toward sin that still is within us in this world.
You have been crucified with Christ in Gal. 2:20 – but we all must admit that we are strongly drawn to live for our selves rather than for Christ.
Anyone in Christ is a new creation with the old being gone in 2 Cor 5:17 – but most of us will acknowledge that there is still a whole lot about us that needs to be re-created and where the "old" still is here! And that brings us to disabilities week. Specifically, the Bible lets us know that healing is included in the work of Christ. When all is made new, all disabilities will be gone. This fact is so certain in the promises of God that we are told to live with confidence already that we ARE new creations.
But, the perspective is one we must accept by faith and not by sight. What this does in us is that is platns deep in our beings a desire for Christ to finish his work. The bible several times tells us we groan for God to finish what he has started. We who love Jesus pray, "Maranatha, come quickly!"

So, today we want to think a bit about how we are to live as we wait for Jesus to finish he re-creating work in us and in our world. We will come back to this topic and meditate on it for several weeks early in 2014. Until then, I'm going to give you five statements for you to consider in an introductory way. Then I'm going to ask a brother from our church, Mario Farrante, to come join me as we talk about some of these issues (and a few others as well). How does the NT teach us to live as we wait for God to finish his work?
• We are to look through the trial to the promised re-creation – We pray diligently that God will do his transforming healing work now. But, many times we must wait on him and, while we wait, we fix our eyes on Jesus and the promise that he will indeed finish his work. We live now in the light of that future hope and promise.
• We "consider" what God has said about our future in the light of what we experience now – Bottom line, we take time to ask if we really believe God when he says he will make all things new. Do you remember what Jesus said when his disciples could not understand why he had to die? He said, "You believe in God. Trust me. I know where I'm going. I know what I'm doing. I'm doing it for you. Trust me."
• We make a conscious decision to trust God. We often want everything "now" but God promises it "will be". Again, the "will be" is so certain that God states it as if it already is. I came to Jesus by faith that his grace is sufficient for me. And, I have learned that I must daily engage in conscious acts of faith to trust God – even while I do not now see what he is doing.
• We choose to live in faith and obedience while God is finishing his work. I am struck by how Paul put it in Ephesians 5:8: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light." We cannot do this on our own, of course. But, God gives us his Spirit to empower us. And he gives us our church family. Here is church we learn about how to live for God, we pray for one another, and we walk together. Or, at least, that's what we're supposed to do. Right? We come together, as Hebrews 10 says, "to spur one another on toward love and good deeds."
• We even find joy in the trial because we trust there is a divine purpose in it – We "consider" – as James 1 puts it. We consider all we believe. A part of it is that all that God allows is something he will use to make all things new. God uses our trials to do his "perfecting work: either in us or through us as we trust him and give witness to him. We know God uses our trials to do his perfecting work in us and/or in his world.
I'll stop there for now and ask Mario Farrante to join me for the rest of our service...

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor