"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come".
Hi EACF,
The last time I wrote you regarding this brief passage, I focused on the spiritual realities of what it means to be "in Christ"- to be a "new creation" and for the new life to take hold in place of the old. Of course, the spiritual realities will inevitably show forth through changed lives, whether the changes be drastic or gradual.
This time, I'd like you to come along with me to look around 2 Corinthians 5 through a wider-angle lens to take away some implications for those who belong to Jesus. In other words, "If I've been made a new creation in Christ, what then does it look like? What does it mean for me in my day-to-day life?"
From my reading, I see 4 new "P"s for those who are new creatures Christ:
Those who are in Christ are driven by a new Passion, have been given a new Purpose, have been given a new Perception, and have a new Pursuit.
Passion
"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;" v. 14
Every time I read this particular passage, I am in awe of the kind of life that God has given us and called us to embody. For many of us, having control of our lives is a subtle but recalcitrant idol. Our internal/fleshly voices tell us that life is truly good ONLY when everything is going as WE planned- (e.g. our jobs are secure, we make enough to not live from paycheck to paycheck, we have married someone we love....and if we have kids they are going to the best schools...and you have a set of relationships that we are comfortable with...). When any of those things (and other things I've not mentioned as well) fall out of joint or goes awry...we start questioning God's goodness, as if we were entitled to every comfort.
Does the idea of being controlled by the love of Christ bring you joy and gladness, and a willingness to serve Him regardless of what it costs you? Or does it seem far-off, something unattainable, something for "super spiritual" Christians? Regardless of how that phrase hits you, the truth is that if you belong to Christ- this is your destined reality. You and I were called out of darkness and into his marvelous light not so that we could live as we wish, but to be conformed to the image of His Son. If our lives are meant to become like Christ, that transformation always begins on the inside and works its way out.
Purpose
"and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. v.15
"So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him." v.9
If the love of Christ is the all-encompassing and centering passion of our lives, then it makes complete sense for us to make it our aim to please the one who loved us and gave himself for us (Galatians 2:20).
Just as we went through the first question in New City Catechism: "What is our only hope in life and death?" "That we are not our own, but belong, body and soul, both in life and in death to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ"- so we have been bought with a price, and therefore are meant to honor God with our body (1 Corithians 6:20).
Perception
"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer." v.16
When the love of Christ begins to take hold of our lives, we will find that we are given new eyes (sometimes drastically, other times more gradually) to see everyone and everything in a different light. We start to see that there are no longer people who are irredeemable, no matter how lost they seem- no matter how wrong we consider their perspectives on life (politics, society, philosophy, faith) may be- because we know that apart from God's grace we were just as dead in our sins and unable to save ourselves.
We also start losing the fleshly tendency to see others as a means to our ends- and instead realize that other people (whether they belong to God's family or not) are made in His image and are worthy of care and love regardless of how they treat us, or what they can potentially offer us. Ultimately the love of Christ breaks our hearts for the hurt and brokenness that sin has wrought in the lives of the people we rub shoulders with.
In addition to this, we start to see that all the earthly/material gifts that God has blessed you with are ultimately to be stewarded for the sake of bringing Him honor and glory....and so we reassess and redirect all that we have towards the controlling passion of our lives...
Pursuit
"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience." v. 11
"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." v. 18-19
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." v. 20
And so as the love of Christ grows in us and takes ahold of us, we will inevitably seek to channel that love towards faithfully representing Christ to those around us- in every way that we are led by His Spirit to do, employing every means we have at our disposal so that God would make his appeal through us. Living in this way may not look as you imagine. It may require you to sacrifice comfort and control- actually it's quite certain that you will relinquish control to Christ as you seek to obey Him. We cannot follow Him without losing control. God has given US the ministry of reconciliation. We are the messengers who are to proclaim what God has done in Christ.
As I mentioned in a previous post- I took a trip to Berlin for a conference, and had the opportunity to visit certain monuments- and one of these included a mile-long strip where the wall used to occupy and divide Germany. There was formerly a church that literally straddled both sides of the wall that was torn down to make way for the wall. Now a small chapel has been built in memory of that church, along with several remaining relics from that building. There was a sculpture next to that new chapel called "Reconciliation". The sculpture was such a poignant expression and reminder of how reconciliation is a messy, hard, and painful work- but because of Christ (see the Bible between the two people)- it is possible and worth it. How much more so is reconciling people to God!
Brother and sisters, this kind of life controlled by the love of Christ is not just an ideal- the Lord gave us these words from Paul so that we could know that it was (and is) possible in real life- but NOT by our own efforts.
If this kind of life feels like a far-off impossibility, I encourage you to go back to the beginning- start with the love of God in Christ. Ask the Lord to mesmerize you with the length, breath, height and depth of His love for you, the love the passes all understanding yet which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit so that we can cry "Abba, Father" to our gracious heavenly Father. May Christ's life, death, and resurrection grow in becoming the most precious truth that undergirds your life. Hide yourself in Him. May His life be your life.
May the Lord direct our hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
Grace and Peace,
Mike
P.S. For anyone interested in the rest of the Berlin Wall Memorial, I've shared an album here:
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