Gospel Course - The Gospel Makes You New - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

All right. Second Corinthians chapter 5,

2 Corinthians 5:17–21

verses 17 to 21. The Bible says, therefore, if

any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become

new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to

himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of

reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the

world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and

hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did

beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead be

reconciled to God, for He hath made Him to be sin for us who

knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in

him. Today we're going to deal with

this subject of reconciliation. We will see first and point #1

if you're following along the work of reconciliation, the work

of reconciliation, see something had to happen for man to be

reconciled to God. And you maybe didn't know this,

but this is your greatest need. If you could maybe think about

what does the world need or what do I need?

We all want security, money, purpose.

We all want to fix the planet, make it a better place, make

America great again, or whatever.

You know, I don't mean to be political, but we all want

things to improve. And what really is the thing

that will improve society? Is it reform?

What really will fix my life? Is it more income?

And your greatest need, whether you want to admit it or not, is

that you need to be reconciled to your Creator.

This word reconciled is used multiple times in verse 18.

Who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ in verse

19, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto

himself. And in verse 20 the request is

be reconciled to God. This is your greatest need.

So just in case you aren't familiar with the word, maybe

it's been a long time since you've been to English class.

The word reconcile is to conciliate anew, to

reconciliate, to call back into union and friendship the

affections which have been alienated, to restore after

estrangement. Maybe you see some of those

words and think that's that's pretty intense to think that I

need to be restored to God. Most people think they're a good

person, but the the reality is that we need to be conciliate

with God and we are alienated. As it says, that's a pretty

intense word as well. We are estranged as in we don't

by nature have a relationship. We may understand who he is.

He's certainly at work in our life and in the the whole world.

But as far as connection in relationship goes, the Bible

uses a couple of those words. Alienated is a Bible word.

Colossians chapter 1 In Colossians one it mentions the

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

the previous life of a Christian before you were saved, that you

were alienated and enemies. Yet now hath he reconciled, you

have been conciliate again. Romans chapter 5 similar

Romans 5 · chapter mention

language. When we were enemies, we were

reconciled to God by the death of his Son.

This isn't just that you're kind of a good enough person to get

to heaven. The standard is holiness and all

have fallen short. We are all enemies of God until

we are saved. So I put it to you this way in

your notes. We must know that we are lost

and separated from God to be saved.

If you don't think you need saving, then the gospel will not

really have much value to you. And maybe you've met people like

that. You try to share the gospel with

them and they're like, Nah, I'm fine, I'm good.

I think I'll make it to heaven anyway.

On their own merit, not on the merit of Christ.

So you, so people need to understand their lostness.

That's your greatest need. Secondly, you need to know that

Jesus did all the work for you to be reconciled to God.

Many of us would think, I have things that I've done, if we're

honest with ourselves, I've had things that I've done that I'm

ashamed of or I know I shouldn't have done, and maybe I need to

atone in some way. And what we find, the good news

of the gospel is that you can't atone somebody atone for you.

You don't have to try to make up for all of your past sins.

Now, if you are in relationship with other people and you've

done things wrong, you should apologize.

You should get right, you know, do what you know to do.

But as far as being in right fellowship with God, there is

nothing you can do to restore the breach of being an

adversary. It had to be done for you.

So first we see that Jesus takes all of your sin.

This verse in verse #21 is absolutely amazing.

The Bible says, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no

sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

This is this is the greatest deal of all time.

Like if you're thinking about game shows like Deal or No Deal,

or if you're hip and modern and you're thinking about Mr. Beast,

who would I betray for $1,000,000, right?

This on the have you seen the show?

You know, they put up people against all these different

things and there's money or choose your friends and but it's

a game show. These people don't know each

other. It's like choose the money.

Come on, it's 1,000,000 bucks, right?

No, that's just, that's how I look at it.

It's a game, but there is no greater deal.

There is nothing that anyone could give you.

There is no exchange that you could ever make that's greater

than the exchange of the cross. That every single thing you've

ever done wrong was placed on Jesus, for he hath made him to

be sin for us. John calls Jesus the Lamb of

God, which takes away the sin of the world.

The book of Galatians, the Bible, says that he gave himself

for our sins. So Jesus is death on the cross.

It's not just accident, it's not political, it's not whoopsie.

It was an intentional, intentional laying down of his

life for us. Hebrews tells us that he

appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the

sacrifice of himself. So when you watch the Passion,

when you remember Easter and you think about the crucifixion, you

can know that the thing that put Jesus on the cross was your sin.

Certainly it was the Romans, the Jews, but also we're responsible

as well. He took it upon himself.

So he takes all of your sin, and this is the exchange.

He gives you all of his righteousness.

Verse 21 that that we might be made the righteousness of God.

This is absolutely incredible that we might be made righteous.

You see you, you have, you aren't righteous, you have to be

made righteous. And when God makes you

righteous, it's greater than anything anybody else can do.

Verse 19 says not imputing their trespasses unto them.

So God is no longer taking your trespass or your sin onto you.

It's now been placed onto Christ.

So that word impute is probably not a word you use everyday.

So to impute is to reckon, to properly set or to put.

It comes from the Latin word input O or to put in to input,

right? It's that simple.

You see it, right? So what God does is He no longer

puts your sin on you. Instead He exchanges that and He

puts righteousness into you. We see this in Psalm 32.

This is quoted in Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose

sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the

Lord imputeth, not iniquity. So it's no longer on your

account, it has been reconciled, cleared and instead God imputes

something else to you. As Abraham is a picture for us

in Romans chapter 4, it says for us also like Abraham, to whom it

Romans 4 · chapter mention

shall be imputed if we believe. So.

You can go read Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Maybe that's some homework for you.

The example of Abraham is that he trusted God by faith, and

because of his faith, God put righteousness into Abraham to

say I'm counting him righteousness because he

believed me. And that's the same thing for

us. It is our faith that puts God's

righteousness in us, not because we're deserving based on the

merit of our faith. So I put it to you this way in

your notes that rightness with God is only obtained through

faith in the Gospel. Rightness with God is only

obtained through faith in the gospel.

So so far, this is how you are saved.

Atonement was made on the cross. If you take the greatest deal of

all time, your sin is placed on Jesus and God gives you his

righteousness. And when you choose to believe

by faith, I believe that Jesus died, buried, was buried, and

rose again. I call him Lord God, forgive me,

put my sin on Jesus. I want to be righteous.

I want to be saved. When you choose to do that,

there's a result that happens. The results of reconciliation.

You will forever be changed. It is an unchangeable change

because it was made by God. You were made righteous.

So let's look at this change that we see here in verse 17.

It says therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become

new. So the Christian that believes

the gospel that's taken the deal you're on Mr. Beast and you said

I want the 1,000,000 bucks. I don't care about my friends.

I'm in on Jesus right. You have a new nature.

This isn't just a new religion. It's not just a pattern of good

works. I've got to attend church

because I'm supposed to. Something changed inside of you

the moment that you believed. So there's three things I want

you to see here. We'll hit them briefly, but

first you are placed into Christ.

You are in Christ. This is in verse 17.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, this is just absolutely

amazing that God places you into His Son.

We see that a similar passage, Ephesians chapter 2 says that we

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

So that word created is very simple, similar to the concept

here in 2nd Corinthians 5 that you're a new creature.

Here it says you're recreated again.

You are created in Christ Jesus. Secondly, we see that you are

passed away. We can just have a funeral right

now. Let's just do it next week.

I'll do that. I'll wear all my I have funeral

attire. I call it like funeral shoes and

stuff that's like just all black.

My wife likes when I give clothes away and clear my closet

out and we purge things, right? And she pointed to those and I

was like, those are my funeral shoes.

They can't go away. I need what if someone dies?

I need black shoes. But let's just imagine you're

right here. You're in a casket in the front

of the room. We all come to grieve.

We mourn the loss today of you. Old things are passed away.

Whoever you think you are, Romans chapter 6 says that we

Romans 6 · chapter mention

are buried with him by baptism into death.

This is how we identify with Jesus in the the water of

baptism. It's not the act of baptism, but

the act of baptism represents the spiritual reality that when

I chose to believe, I became a new creature and what happened

to me is I'm actually buried with Christ into death.

It goes on to say that our old man, who I used to be, I'm

actually crucified with him. Well, that's hard to accept,

isn't it? Obviously you're still alive.

You should stay alive. That'd be good.

We're talking about the submission of yourself to God

and the acceptance of the new creature that God made you to

be. Just by way of example for me,

some things that that looked like when I became a Christian,

sort of following God and his word, I brought to the table

about the time I was being discipled A threefold options

for my life. I was going to be a professional

video gamer. I played competitively.

I thought I was good. And the Lord just totally shut

that down. I was in a death metal band.

I can still play guitar, but I'm not the Lord just shut all that

down. And I thought I had a career

path, that I no longer have that career path anymore either.

And certainly it's not wrong to do things with your life, enjoy

your life, do things. But our, our entire identity

changes when we become a Christian.

It all gets surrendered and crucified to say God, you tell

me who you want me to be. My old man has passed away.

And that's bad news. But good news is that you are

made new. There's a new you.

You don't have to worry about grieving the loss of the old

you. The new and improved 1 is

absolutely better, just infinitely better because he's

eternally better. The new you is saved.

You have eternal life man. I mean you have victory over

sin. Verse 17 says he is a new

creature. All things are become new.

All things are of God. This is essentially the rebirth

of you. If you might wonder, you know,

you watch like TV or something or video games or whatever it

is. They use rebirth as like the the

thing that happens to to change and create or develop a new

thing or spin something off again.

And it's really all just ripping off Jesus in John chapter 3 when

John 3 · chapter mention

he says accept a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom

of God. This is the born again

experience salvation that when we're born a second time through

faith in the gospel, God gives us his Holy Spirit to

permanently indwell us and identify us with him, to be

conciliate and reconciled back to him.

We become a new person. Your personality might even

change. I know when I was lost, I had

taken personality tests that were one thing, and as I began

to follow the Lord, I started to realize maybe I'm not the way I

thought I was. You, you might still retain some

of your personality. By the way, God retains that.

When you read the Psalms, you see King David's personality

through the Psalms. He cares very much about your

life and your experiences. And he can we'll talk in a

moment about using those things, but we need to believe God when

He says that all things are become new.

We need to step into the new creature and the new creature.

Lastly, we'll see today has a new purpose.

If you believe the gospel is true, you have something else to

do with your life than what you used to do.

You now live your life just one moment.

All right, we got it. So you have a new purpose in

verse. Read verse 20 with me.

In Second Corinthians chapter 5 it says, Now then we are

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by

us. We pray you in Christ's stead be

reconciled to God. So who wrote this?

The book of Second Corinthians is written by the apostle Paul.

It's written to a church in Corinth, essentially Greece that

he he planted prior to this. This is the second technically

the 3rd letter that he's written to them and he's talking about

himself here with the other apostles or his ministry team.

When he says we are ambassadors for Christ, he's talking about

him visiting Corinth with that. The message that I shared with

you in .1 the the God was in Jesus reconciling the world unto

himself. So he says we came as

representatives of Jesus to you as though God did beseech you by

us. So he said God is hitting you up

and he's using us as we come to you and this is now your life as

a Christian. We no longer have apostles that

are outgoing, wild and crazy planting churches doing

miracles. We now have Christians, we are

ambassadors for Christ. So this new purpose that you

have is twofold. We'll see today.

First is to become a minister. It says in verse 18 and and hath

given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

So those of us that believe we have a ministry of service to go

to other people and see them reconciled unto God the same way

as we were, It says we are ambassadors for Christ.

And I'll tell you what, the lost world will never preach the

gospel. People that are not born again

do not care about the gospel. If Christian people don't share

the gospel, nobody will. Who is going to be saved in your

neighborhood, in your Co working space, in your family, unless

you share the gospel with them as though God did beseech you by

us. This is your new life.

You're a minister. Congratulations.

You want to come up here? I'll get you my funeral garb.

I don't have one of those callers, but we'll get you a

caller if you want one. Welcome to the ministry.

This is what Jesus taught us, didn't he?

The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister

and to give his life a ransom for many.

So no doubt we we want you to come to church man, get

discipled and joy being ministered too.

But you got to get equipped because you have a ministry even

in your own life. We all do.

I want to point to an an example.

In first Corinthians chapter 16, Paul mentions these folks, the

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

House of Stefanus. He says that they have addicted

themselves to the ministry of the Saints.

I just think what a phrase for the Bible to use the word

addicted. Like I can't get enough of

serving other people of the ministry of reconciliation, of

sharing the gospel, of investing in others.

I I just can't stop. I think that should be true of

all of us. We maybe don't always feel like

it. We all need rest, absolutely.

We need to function within our gifting, no question.

But we can all seek other people out that they might be

reconciled. So I put it in your notes.

How can we leverage our identity in Christ to reach others?

I might have put an extra word in there.

That one's free. But just think about for you,

how can you reach others? I know just this week I've been

praying, walking around my neighborhood, praying and

counting the houses and just thinking who's going to reach

them. And I got to confess, I don't

always want to be the one doing that.

As much as I love the ministry, I really do, there is that

social thing of like trying to figure out, hey man, you you

need to get right with Jesus. It's not always easy for us to

do, but how can we leverage that?

How did God make you? What opportunities do you have?

And lastly, let's look at sharing with others.

Verse 19 says, so verse 18 says we're given a ministry.

Verse 19 says that we're committed the word of

reconciliation, the word of reconciliation.

See, the only way anybody's ever going to receive this message is

if it comes out of our mouth. I have a pastor friend in

Vancouver who would say that the gospel is still mouth to ear.

No matter how fancy we make it in digital, we make it.

We can't outsource it. We've got to just talk to

people, and really we need to talk to people with the Word of

God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing

by the Word of God. So we need to be pursuing

conversations that get us to the Scriptures so that the Word of

God can do the heavy lifting and convict of sin and open the eyes

of the blind for people to see Christ.

That might be intimidating for you, but I have it real easy for

you in your notes. At very least you have the

gospel. You maybe can't solve all of the

problems in the world. You maybe don't have a rebuttal

for every atheist or every complexity in the faith, but if

you know that there was an exchange made on the cross the

greatest deal of all time, that's enough.

If you don't have that, I think we have tracks.

I don't know if I have one with me.

Our tracks will help you out. You can just grab one of these.

You can cheat. It's totally fine.

You can cheat on the gospel, man.

It's OK. But if you have more, maybe

maybe you know more. You also have what you know of

the Bible. If you've been in church for any

length of time, you know enough to steward.

You can take people as far as you've been, and if you don't

know enough, this is what our personal discipleship ministry

is for. We want to take the Word of God

and then commit it to faithful men.

Let's get some doctrine into your life.

Let's give you answers to common questions.

How do I know that I'm saved? Am I saved forever?

Who's the Holy Spirit? What's communion?

What's baptism? What's a church?

What should I do with my life? We can give you the answers to

those questions and you can steward at least as much as you

have in your possession. But that's a lot for us today.

We saw the new creature. We saw we became the new

creature through the gospel. Let me ask you in a moment of

response. Well, we have another song here

in just a minute. What do I need to do today?

Has there been a time in your life that you chose to take this

deal the greatest deal of all time?

If not, it's a simple The Bible says that you believe in your

heart that Christ rose from the dead, and you confess with your

mouth that he is the Lord and you'll be saved.

You'll be changed just like that on a random Sunday night in

April. Maybe the new creature needs

some reckoning to figure out. What does it mean for old things

to be passed away? What does it mean to have all

new things in my life? I I don't even, I don't know if

I understand that. Maybe just tell that to the

Lord. What'd you do to me when you

save me, who am I? How about this week, if we go

from Sunday to Sunday and we never pursue anybody or share

the gospel with anybody, we're missing it.

Is there anybody in your life that you would just right now

have come to mind that you would say, man, I know I need to reach

out to that person. If they die right now, apart

from Christ that they're not going to go to heaven.

Or maybe you at least would surrender to God using you this

week. But how about us as a church?

If we consider the neighborhood we're in or the way in which

we're reaching the city, what does God have for us?

How can we be good ministers of reconciliation as a church?

How can we have the word of reconciliation and get it to

others? What does that look like?

We have opportunities this summer.

We have missions teams coming about 1 per month.

I think most of those are in your notes.

If you want to figure out your calendar, come and be present.

We're going to do evangelism together in the city on a

Saturday once a month. If you've never done it, just

come and watch and be a part. Or you can come and try.

That'd be awesome. But I'd like to give us a moment

now to pray. Let's just ask the Lord to

search you out if He's given you something already that you know

you need to do. Circle it, write it down, pray,

and then I'll lead us in a prayer and we'll have one more

song. So let's take a moment and pray.