review

We're going to review 17 through 21 today. And again, the idea here is not that we just reteach the same material, have the same slides that we had. Let's see, what's the date on these slides here? November the 7th. So the idea here is not to reteach this, but to go through it again and just interact over it and kind of talk through it and see what everyone's thoughts are about it.

So, awesome passage, as I was reviewing it this past week. Great passage, and familiar verse, I'm sure, chapter 5 and verse 17. So let's just read through 17 and down through verse 21. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away, Behold, new things have come.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us. We beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Okay? So, verse 17 is a, as I said, is a great verse, probably one that you all are very familiar with, and so just some thoughts here about about this verse, and we talked about it before, back in November. So therefore, if any man is in Christ, who are those people that are in Christ? Who are those people that are in Christ? Pretty simple question. Yeah, those that are saved, those that are believers, have trusted in Christ as his Savior. So what does it mean to be in Christ, for those that are saved, that are believers, have trusted Christ as his Savior? What does it mean? that you have all the spiritual blessings that he has given you. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. It's, it's, it's so much that, you know, this side of eternity, we're never going to be able to fully grasp all of that, all of that means. Question. Yeah. The if, from the Greek, can that be translated sense? I don't know absolutely, but I think so. Yeah. Since you are. And since you are, then this is going to be true. That's right. That's right. You do? Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Is everybody familiar with the 1 Corinthians 12 passage? Is everybody familiar with that? Let's look at that, because I didn't see any affirmative nods. So... 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13 and let's just start at verse 12 and we'll read 12 and 13. Would you read that for us, Gene? Yeah, read verse 12 and 13.

For as the body is one and hath many members, And all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Okay, good. Thank you. So there it is. what we're talking about there, being in Christ, for by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body. So, by the Holy Spirit, we have been baptized or placed into the body of Christ.

So there's now no longer Jew, there's no longer Greek, but there's one body of Christ, the Church. So that's what, you know, when it, the position of truth of being placed into Christ, that's kind of the starting point of it all. right there in 1 Corinthians 12. Jim, sometimes I'll ask people, well, where were you when Adam sinned?

Well, the majority, the average Christian won't, you know, it's a difficult question for people. But I wouldn't be for this group, I don't think. Why don't you answer that for us, just to make sure that we all know. That is so easy that even Wayne can answer.

Some people think, well I wasn't born yet, but we were in him, right? In Adam. That's right. I like to think as a believer now that as we are, now we have the spirit of Christ in us, where were we when Christ died on the cross? We have a new source, and he placed us in himself, certainly, and so we're identified now with a new source. That's right. Where once it was Adam, now we have a new source, the last Adam.

First Corinthians 15, 45, right? It's kind of heavy for some to think that way, but you know, certainly we get this teaching here and it's a blessing. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that federal headship, that representative, those representative truths are critical for believers to understand, because it helps them understand their identity. It was once with the first Adam, but now It's with the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, because we've been placing Him. That makes all the difference in the world.

It's interesting, a little side note here, but two doors down from us in our neighborhood, there's a young couple there. And we've been just kind of open to the Lord for what God might have for us to get to know these folks a little bit. So, lo and behold, about a month ago, maybe five weeks ago now, they came in, they knocked on our door, and they said, we're going to have a Bible study at our house, would you guys like to come? And I was, you know, my jaw hit the floor, and now what they're studying through, they're going through the Purpose Driven Life book by Rick Warren, which, you know, it's not necessarily the greatest piece of writing out there, but you know, God uses it, you know, I think God uses it. And so we said, yeah, sure, we'd love to come.

So we're going, and so to feed off of what you're saying there, Jean, is that these things that you just talked about are not being talked about there. They're not talked about in that book. So we're there, we're hanging in there, but we're there to maybe share some of these deeper truths. of identity and representation as the Lord now and not of ourselves.

So it's a force in it because it's tough. But at the same time, it's exciting because here's a group of people in our neighborhood that really do want to know the Lord more. That's why they're there. I thought it was a pretty bold move that they would go around and knock on people's doors and try to get a little baptist going. So I give them all the credit in the world for doing it. They need to know that, that they need to know those deeper truths and so we're hopefully can get some of that. Maybe it's a six weeks thing, you go through the book, but hopefully it'll continue on. That's our desire, that it'll continue on past just the six weeks and it'll be a little bit, we can get to some more, a little more deeper stuff.

Well, they don't know anything about me and I'm fine with that. They said, we don't want anybody from our church really any leaders from our church coming because we don't want anybody coming in that's going to kind of think they know all the right answers or be putting me down and so I'm just sitting on the, not that I do have the right, I'm not trying to say that at all, I'm sitting on the sofa being quiet and making a few comments here and there and not trying to take over. I did make a few comments because those books are so paraphrased and quite a bit taken out of context.

Maybe that's why the word is in the issue in the right. We've had two weeks, and it's six weeks long, so the first week was really kind of, but to me it's exciting to be able to get there. And they call this a Bible study. They do. Let me say something there. Sure, they call it a Bible study. That could mean a lot of things. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Okay. So, in Christ. Okay.

Let's talk about this a little bit. And Gene, you brought this up, I think it was two weeks ago or maybe three weeks ago as well, that it's not new in time, but new as to form or quality of a different nature from what it is contrasted to in the old.

Creation is original formation having come into a state of being that never existed before. It's a new quality creation and to create means to make something from nothing so it's not a recreation of the old sinful nature but a completely new creation by God and we talked about that a lot a couple weeks ago that's again another critical point for people to understand that God's not in the business of making my old dressing up my sin nature and trying to make my sin nature better so that I can change my old habits to have better habits or my old routines and have better routines. But the old was so unimprovable and uncorrectable that he had to crucify it and to give us a completely new, a new nature and the opposite of the old. That new nature is the very life of Christ himself. So, that's something that we think about on a On a regular basis, when we go through our day and a temptation of some kind comes up, whether it's a temptation to be angry or to worry or to whatever the temptation might be, to say, okay, I know that it's not up to me to try to not fall into that temptation, but it's because of the Lord Jesus Christ and my faith, I'm resting. in my position in Christ.

That's where I'm going to find the victories. How does that work for you guys? We're all in it together. We're all growing in it together. There's not a day that goes by where we don't have some kind of a struggle of one kind. So how does that work? How does it flush out on paper for you guys? It's something we have to remind ourselves of every day as we go along. That reckoning really comes into play there a lot. When those things hit, you just have to reckon yourself dead to sin and move on. It's certainly the peaceful way of doing it. That's had an awful lot of struggles and guilt complexes.

Sure. Yeah? Is this workmanship in Christ, is that an ongoing process or is that a completed thing? Okay. It's already over with and done with? We have become. It's in the perfect active indicative. And what that means, it's a completed past action with ongoing results. So it's something that was completed in the past, but it has results that are continuing on in the future.

Yeah. Old things have passed away. Behold, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become. all things have become, it's already completed past action, all things have already become new, and it has results that are continuing on in the future. So, it's in the past, completed, and it's being carried out in the future, so how is it that we walk in the things that have already been completed in the past, but are yet having results in the future? How is it that we walk in those things that have already been completed for us? I notice when we read the scriptures that all things are becoming new. I'm wondering how that's related in any way to being in process.

Okay, okay. That's a great question. That's a great question, sure. Does everybody understand the question? Okay. Read your translation again. This is an old school field. Well, that's okay. Schofield's good. ... Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are, it says, become new. Become new. All things are become new. Okay. Are becoming new or becoming new? Okay.

Well, again, we have to go back to one of the preliminary questions we have to ask of the scriptures. Is that a positional truth or is that a conditional truth? See? It's positionally, all things are new, but conditionally, Luther was right too to say that we're snow-covered dunce, because we have to walk in faith, in the original truth. Because when we look in retrospect at the end of a day in our life, we have to just go forward knowing that we didn't walk in Christ 100% the way we should have.

Sure, yeah. Did you hear that answer? Okay. I have a note on that. New life has begun. Because a new life has begun. Okay. You know, what are everybody else's thoughts? When you really look and study it over, that new there is, it is continually new. Okay.

Yeah. Ginnomai. Ginnomai? Ginnomai. Okay, okay. Always new. Okay. Which is hard to grasp. Yeah, yeah. Is it not like it's so like changing from one frequency to another in some respects? We have the new man and we put off the old man and we, you know, you might say we go from like AM to PM, go from Or FM, I should say. You go to a different frequency.

By faith we put on Christ. So we put on and abide in Him by faith. And the just shall live by faith and be led by the Spirit of God. Those are the sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God. So as we daily put off the old man and put on the new by faith, we're invoking in newness of life. Just a step of faith. Right, right, right. Constantly abiding, it has to be the way of victory. Sure, sure. I think that it's both. I think that it's a positional truth and I think that it has a conditional side to it as well.

All things have become new. Now, that's happened the moment that we trusted Christ as our personal Savior, because that's when we were placed into Christ. It happened at the cross. We're baptized into the body of Christ. That's the moment in time that all things became new. So, it's a completed past action. the moment that we trusted Christ.

It's a completed deal, it's 100% done, but that's a positional side, it's a completed past action, but it has ongoing results. And what are the ongoing results? This morning, and tomorrow, and Tuesday, and Wednesday. And those ongoing results, I think, our part in those ongoing results is simply to walk by faith, to abide in Christ, and to rest in the Lord. and to behold them. So I think it's both.

All things have become new and that's a positional truth and conditionally we're walking by faith and that's how that position becomes real in our condition, becomes real in our experience. Is that the things that it's talking about here? All things are becoming new?

Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Okay, so let's just read those two together to get the flow. Therefore any man that is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us a ministry of reconciliation.

So there's a comparison there of the old things and of the new things. So, again, I think we can look at it from a positional point of view and also from a conditional point of view. The old things, the old sin nature, has been rendered powerless because of Christ's death on the cross and our death with him. And also the old things, the deeds of the flesh.

And also he gets into gets into here a reconciliation a little bit, and even the sins of mankind, they're no longer before God. So those things are, and new things have come, and all these new things are from God. Does that answer your question, Jack? I'd like to look at these sub-references.

I've got this old scopio and I just wondered if here in his case he's got it written down here as reconciliation and he refers it back to Romans 3.23 I think it is. Let's see here. You are forgiven already. That's right, that's right. So you want to continue your thought or no? Well, no, I think I'll finish it. Okay. We're doing away with those old things anyhow. That's right.

What do you guys think that the things is talking about there? What do you think? I kind of, you know, I think that's kind of what Jack was driving at and I gave my thoughts. What do you, you know, the old things have passed away, new things have come, all these things, all these things are from God. What are the things there that's being talked about? By Him all that believe are justified from all things. So it's all those things that pertain to Adam. the dynamic race, all of our old nature, and all those things. We're sure that's what...

That are passed away. Yeah. Things of the old creation. Things of the old creation. Okay. Wayne? We constantly try to improve the old man, and God is in the business of improving the old man because he's condemned. Yeah. He's saying, you know, consider that. move on to your new life and learn how to use your new life. Yeah. So when we sometimes fall into the trap of trying to improve the old man, we're trying to improve the very thing which has passed away.

I mean, think about that. What a waste. What a waste of time, energy, and effort to try to do that. It's like having that open casket table. Boy, doesn't he look normal? Yeah. Yeah. It goes to all that trouble to make that body look like it was, you know, 20 years younger and all this other stuff. We're telling it to get up and to do a better job and to learn new things and to, yeah, yeah. But we all fall into that trap from time to time. But the Lord in His grace has shown us in the progressive growth process that it's not about trying to pump the old man up.

So the old things, all those old things have passed away. So what are the things that have become new? What would you say those are, the things that have become new? What are the all things that are from God? What's that talking about, the things? All the things that have come new is the life in Christ. I like that. Yeah. What's that? I was just remarking what you said. That was good. Yeah. So the new things that have come is the life of Christ.

Obviously because we didn't have the life of Christ previously. We were alienated from the life of God. Being in Christ, now we have the very life of God, sure. And any of the things that might be fruit that comes from the life of God, obviously those are the things that are coming from God, because they're not coming from us, because we have nothing to offer. You know, because in and of ourselves dwells no good thing. We know that quite well.

What do you think? You brought the question up, Doug. Then you were the one that kind of pointed us on Verse 8, what do you think about the things? Any thoughts? I think a lot of it is the answer in the next verse. In verse 8 or go on to verse 9? Well, same verse. We're reconciled like Jesus Christ. We're reconciled. What does reconciliation mean?

What does it mean? To be brought into a right relationship with God. All things that depend upon that. That's the beginning line. As it says here, We can't become new. That's the point. We began at that point. A new life. Because if you go up to verse 16, we are a new Christ from a human standard according to our own flesh. So I think that's where we become new. It's no longer from according to our flesh. It becomes new daily from our spirit within. Yeah, that's looking at things from a different perspective. One was looking at it from an external perspective and one was looking at it from a spiritual perspective. Yeah, right on.

So all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. When you think about the word reconciliation, it's kind of a big doctrinal term, you know, and one of the big heavy hitters of doctrinal terms that are out there. What comes to your mind when you think about the idea of reconciliation? This passage, the next couple of verses, really hit it pretty heavy, you know, as we read down through there. One, two, three, four, five times in the four verses, he's talking about this idea of reconciliation. So Doug posed the question to me, what is reconciliation? And I answered out, so what does reconciliation mean to you guys?

That's why I was getting at that second one. This one here, verse 19, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses. God sees it. We're reconciling ourselves with that. In other words, we're all part of the original sin of that. But God's reconciled us since we came into Him. Without that being a factor. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

And then the other part of that Romans verse is that God commends His love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and that is tying in there with verse 19, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting the trespasses against Him. He's committed to us the word of reconciliation.

I have a reference here of Ephesians 2.16, I'll read it, 15 first, "...having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinance, to make of himself of two, one new man, so making each, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross." Can you explain the enmity there? Did everybody catch that cross reference there? Ephesians 2, 15 and 16, the second half of 15. Yeah, great cross-reference. That's excellent. I have a note here on that. The Greek word signifies to change thoroughly from.

In various different scriptures, reconciliation looks towards the effect of the death of Christ upon man as propitiation. propitiation is the Godward aspect and is that effect of the death of Christ upon the believing sinner which through divine power works in him a thorough change toward God from empathy and aversion to love and trust.

It never said that God is reconciled. God is propitiated. The sinner reconciled. The change through and from. So the sinner is reconciled. So the sinner is brought from the place of being an enemy or enmity with God to now being at peace with God. Sinners didn't know the word propitiation. Okay, now what does that mean? Satisfied. God is satisfied. Okay, does everybody catch that? Yeah. That's right. Because God is satisfied. Satisfied because of what Christ did on the cross. That's right. Yeah. To me, that's huge stuff.

I don't know about you, but that's profound things that we're talking about regarding our relationship with God and our relationship with the Lord. And, you know, we hear these terms, reconciliation and propitiation and all these kind of big doctrinal Asians, you know, but boy, these are some serious positional truths. that are very personal in our relationship with God. I might have mentioned it before, but back in Bible school, we had some doctrinal classes, and they can be kind of dry. You can do Doctrine 1, Doctrine 2, Doctrine 3 classes, and they can be a little bit dry, just pounding these doctrinal themes.

But when we got into some of this stuff, it clicked in a sense that, boy, this is positional truth. This is just as important as my identification with Christ. I mean, it's all wrapped up together. And these big, dry, doctrinal things became like, wow. You know, I am now, I've been brought to a place of a friend with God. Or was it a place of an enemy with God? And God is actually satisfied. So now I can come boldly into the throne of grace and converse with God. And then trust the Lord that that impacts our lives on a daily and a moment by moment basis and impacts my relationship with Rachel and with my kids and with my friends. Boy, I don't know about you, but that just, it takes these things to a whole other level. Yeah. Do you guys think of those like that? Or are they these dry, stale, doctrinal terms? You know what I'm saying? They can a little bit?

I think a key to understanding the reconciliation is realizing the enmity that existed prior and God's justice and God's deserved wrath that he satisfied on our behalf through drugs. And like in this Bible study that you're doing, that's the kind of things that are missing in the Purpose Driven Life book, and the truths that aren't there, that's made for an easy believism, without the depth that God's Word brings to the truth. It has nothing to do with any effort that we could have done, or even tried.

That's right. Yeah, that's a good point, Steve. You know, Henry's two and a half years old and he is at enmity with God. And I don't want to think about that, but he is right now, huh? Well, yeah, we stopped, you know, we gave it up. Yeah, that created enmity with us. Yeah. But, you know, we're teaching them about God as much as we can and trying to get them to know that God made everything, you know, some of those basic, super basic, that God made him and God made us and God made the plants. But he's that enmity with that guy we're talking about. Until God works in his life, then, oh boy, it's a... There's a huge relational problem between Henry and God. Trust in the Lord will be fixed. But that's what we're talking about, you know?

When it says all things have become new. Yeah. They're not in him. They haven't become new in yourself. That's right. That's exactly right. That's right. But when they do, all things will have become new. Just read the newspapers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know. It's like Calvin gets mad when, when he's, when he, Rachel picks him up and she doesn't feed him. You know, the guy's what he's, you know, 60 days old, two months old, something like that, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

One time I heard Jay Vernon McGee talking about, in the law, how women after giving birth were unclean and had to go through all this. modern feminist ideas that are completely offended by that. He was teaching that it's just to signify how another sinner has been brought into the world.

So think about, we talked about there that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Verses 18 and 19 are real similar. You know, God reconciled us to himself through Christ. It's a very similar phrase that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

And then both of them mention giving us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, he's committed to us the word of reconciliation. Verse 20 carries on the same idea. We're ambassadors for Christ as though we were entreating through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.

What does it mean to you guys that God has given to us this ministry of reconciliation? What does that mean? I already told Steve, I don't know what that means. I think the ministry is the gospel that reconciled us and it's the only thing that can reconcile anyone. So that's the ministry of the gospel. Okay. So he's given us the ministry of the gospel?

Is that what you're saying? Or no? Yeah? Okay. Because that's how the whole world would be reconciled is through Christ and the truth. Right. Right. Any other thoughts? What this ministry of reconciliation means? He's given it to us. We're ambassadors, okay. An ambassador is one who... Okay. Okay. Okay.

So he wants us to be representatives for Christ. of the Gospel, or of this way of coming into a relationship with God, a way that people can come from the place of an enemy to a place of a friend. I notice that he gave this, he gave these words, and in a sense he's letting us know what we are. You're ambassadors, you have this ministry of reconciliation. He gave it to us after we're new creations. See? I think that's critical. This ministry of reconciliation or this idea of ambassadorship isn't something that's to be carried out in flesh. It isn't something that's to be carried out in the old man.

The old things have passed away, all things have become new. In light of what has become new, now you've been given this ministry of reconciliation. In light of the life of Christ within you, now here's the ministry of reconciliation that I've given to you.

Here's this idea of ambassadorship. I think that's critical as we think about this being used by the Lord. I think that's what it's like. I think this ministry of reconciliation is simply talking about that God wants to use us to bring the world into a relationship with Him. He wants to use us to bring people into a relationship with Him. Pretty neat thought. Since he's doing the reconciling, it's not again, it's not an effort.

If we're abiding in Christ, others will see that. Whether we say a word or not, sometimes. We were kind of talking about that last night, even with the language. Yeah. Yeah. And where maybe you've never said a word about being a believer, and yet others, they'll Maybe cuss in front of you or something. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, you know, I don't want to offend you or something. And yet, what made them see that...

Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. It wasn't not necessarily us, it's... Yeah. Yeah. Likewise, if they don't see you, then you need to examine yourself. Yeah. We don't like to talk about that very much. But that's true. You're right on the money. That's just as much a part of it as, you know, there's both sides to that. Exactly right.

You might have remembered several months ago, I shared and I asked you to pray for a young girl two doors down from us that tried to commit suicide. You remember that? Well, this is the girl that invited us into their house. So, you know, here we are. just trusting the Lord for opportunities to share with this girl and with her husband, they're newly married, and obviously that was a wake-up call for her. And she said, boy, I need some kind of help.

And so what they did, they started going over to Cherry Hills Community Church, which is two blocks over from where we live, and that's what they're doing at this church, this Purpose Driven Life thing. Well, the point is, we're trusting the Lord for opportunities to maybe help her out, and so they come and knock on our door and invite us into their house.

Again, that's just the Lord doing what I think it is that He likes to do, to work. And you know, He goes beforehand and He prepares the way and He gives us opportunities to share with people. So that's the resting and abiding and saying, Lord, I know You've given me this ministry of reconciliation. I know, Lord, that You have said that I am an ambassador for You. I'm just going to walk by faith, I'm just simply going to trust you, dependent upon you, open up the doors, open up the conversations, open up the opportunities. That's exciting. It's joyful, it's restful, it's restful productivity. God's living his life in and through us and he's doing those kinds of things. Any other thoughts? Yeah, I'll share something else with you. You mentioned the community church.

The picnic we had Labor Day, I got there early, that's one of my responsibilities as a student, had the place. There was a group there already. All young people. Nice group, they had a volleyball net put up with a hole bit and I told them that we had a permit there. They were from that church. That church is working amongst the young people apparently. The community is. Having things like that to draw the kids in.

Sure. Sure. If they could get them to teach the true gospel, we'd be alright. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reconciliation. Yeah, that's right. That church is working that way. No doubt. No doubt. And God's working, and God's using that. They said, well, he's the one in charge. I went and talked to him. He's okay. No problem. That's great. That's great. Yeah, yeah. When we drive home, it's pretty big. And that's fine.

I'm from a big church back in Virginia. But they have police out directing traffic. And it's so close to our house. It's a little like two blocks from our house that we have to go through the direction of traffic by the police to get home from here. our house. So every week it brings it to, but you know, hey, praise the Lord for what they're doing and God's using it in a great way.

Well, let's just, let's stop there. I think that, you know, we've talked through a lot of what, a lot of what, what these slides are going to say. So, well, it's been a good, good, good time with 2 Corinthians. I've enjoyed it and hopefully You guys have to, but it's over. We'll start something new next week. Oh boy, praise the Lord. It's been good to get to know you guys through the class. We're pretty new, I'm still pretty new here, and so having to be in a class like this obviously enhances getting to know people, so it's been good along those lines.

Let's pray. Lord, thanks for this morning and thanks for just the thoughts that were shared and the conversations that we had and centered around you. There's no greater thing than that, I don't think, but just fellowship and conversation with your word open before us and your spirit leading the conversation and thoughts being shared and you leading us in guidance and the truth. I pray that the things that were shared, that you would bring them to our remembrance. It wouldn't be things that we just would talked about and thought of here for 15 minutes, but they would be things that we would be life-changing for us and that your spirit would bring to remembrance often for us. Just be a thorn in the rest of the service that we have this morning and the fellowship that we have in you. In your name we pray. Amen.