Our New Life

How many of you have quit making new years resolutions? If you have, that’s a good thing. Because if you’ve ever made one, you know they just don’t work, well, at least for most of us. When Becky and I lived in Tacoma, she worked for the Tacoma YMCA. And because she worked for the Y, we got a free family membership, a membership that I actually used to go work out. But I hated this time of year, because I would usually go to the Y around 4:30 in the afternoon. But because of everyone’s New Year’s Resolutions to loose some weight or get fit, I could never find a parking spot. But I knew that this problem would resolve itself soon enough, for half the people who were clogging that lot in January would no longer be there in February.

Those who study these things say that not too many of us are successful in fulfilling our resolutions. Some are. If you are in your twenties, you’ve got a 40% chance of fulfilling your resolutions. But by the time you reach 50, forget it. Only 14% of us ever get through the year fulfilling our resolutions. So, if you’re like me, you quit making resolutions. But that doesn’t mean you’ve stopped growing or learning or wanting to experience better version of your self. It just means, that you’ve realized making new years resolutions isn’t the way to bring about the changes you want to see in your life.

So if making New Years Resolutions don’t really work to help us become all God wants us to become, then what does? That’s what I want to encourage you with from God’s Word today, as we take a fresh look at what the Bible calls Our New Life in Christ.

You see one of our Core Values is that we would be a Gospel Formed People: The truth is that when God redeemed you from your empty way of life and forgave your sin, He gave you a new life in Christ…. But herein lies the problem: Too many Christians struggle with what it looks like to live this new life. It’s just something we are told we have, but then we go on trying live the Christian life in our own strength. And the result of trying to live the Christian life in our own strength, is that we grow weary and frustrated and eventually give up. And this is a tragedy. God didn’t save you just to have you exist in a state of frustrated weariness. And He didn’t save you so that you might become a little bit better version of your self. No, God saved you so you could experience radical life change and flourish in your new life with Him.

So if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open them to 2 Corinthians 5:17, where we learn the truth that… God has given you a New Life: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

This is the starting point. When anyone trusts in Jesus, he or she is united in Christ. You get connected to Christ’s life. This is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. For when you trust in Christ, this doesn’t mean that all of a sudden you got religion; and this doesn’t mean you’ve now got a get out of hell free card. What it does mean is that God has worked a miracle in you.

The old is gone. The old nature – that part of you that lived to sin, that lived just for self – that old nature that lived only for earthly pleasures – that old nature that was always anxious and never really at home in this world – that old nature was given a death blow at the cross. It passed away. It was rendered powerless because a new and greater power took up residence in you – the Holy Spirit.

The moment you believed in Jesus the Holy Spirit gave you new life, and you are not the same anymore. The old you no longer exists. You are not just reformed into a better version of yourself. At that moment you become a brand new person. You are not a rehabilitated version of your former self. At that moment you become a different person – a new spiritual being, alive to God.   You see, Christians are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated – we are recreated (a new creation), living in vital union with Jesus Christ. At that moment when you turn away from trusting in yourself to trusting in Christ, God takes up residence in you. You gain a new identity in Christ, a new power in Christ, a new appetite for the things of God, and a new capacity to live this new life God has given you.

And yes, you will be different. Your old ways of thinking and relating will begin to fade as God’s Spirit in you begins to change you. I remember distinctly how the Spirit began to change me like it was yesterday. Before trusting in Christ I swore like a sailor. But after I put my trust in Jesus, God just cleaned up my mouth. Before trusting in Christ, I had to have a couple of beers in me to feel at ease around people. But after I put my trust in Jesus, His peace just flooded my heart. I was a changed man. God had made me a new man.

And that’s what He wants to do for you if you have not yet put your faith in Jesus. He wants to give you a new heart and a new start. That’s the good news of the gospel. That’s how He recreates us. He does open heart surgery on us with His Spirit.

In fact that’s the next truth God wants us to know about our new life, and that is this: God has given you a New Heart! This was his promise made years ago through the Prophet Ezekiel: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezk 36:26-27

Prior to God giving us a new “spiritual” heart, the Bible says that our heart of stone cannot be trusted to lead us. In reality it can actually lead us astray. Jeremiah said it this way: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) This is what happens: We deceive ourselves into thinking we are generally good people. All we have to do is find someone who is more evil then us. And as long as someone is worse than us, we can feel good about ourselves. But this is simply a sliding scale of morality, and it fails us, because there are also those who are morally superior to us. But to make ourselves feel better, we either avoid those kinds of people, or look for ways to discredit them.

What we really need to do is get honest with ourselves, and admit that there’s something not right within. But to do that takes humility.   The kind of humility expressed by Paul when he said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but cannot carry it out.” Romans 7:18 This is why we grow weary in trying to change ourselves. We simply can’t do it on our own.

The truth is, that apart from God’s help, our sin hardened hearts have no spiritual ability to do anything good. They are simply hearts of stone. And unless God intervenes to give us new hearts, there’s nothing we can do to fix ourselves. But the good news is that this is Just What God Did for us when He gave us Jesus. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us what God did for us in Jesus: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:1-5

What gives you a new life is that God takes your spiritually dead heart, your heart of stone, and replaces it with a new heart: A heart after God.   And now with a new heart, a spiritual heart, God has given us a new disposition. We have a new appetite for the things of God – A new longing. We now want what He wants. We want to know Him, to please him and bring glory to His name. So this new reality in our hearts leads us to our next truth:

God has given you a New Appetite to fuel your life: With His Spirit now living in us, we become thirsty for more of God. We become thirsty to know His will and how to live this new life He’s given us. Peter understood this new appetite for God and so penned these words for us: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3 This is how we fuel the new life. And God has given us His Word as the fuel to feed your soul. So cultivate your craving for His Word so you can grow in this new life God has given you.

Now, this word crave is an interesting one. Peter compares this thirst to the thirst a new born has for milk. The more the baby drinks, the more she’ll grow. My Nephew just welcomed his second child. But after a week, she hadn’t gained any weight. So we were asked to pray that she would drink and grow. That’s the idea here. Here’s our part in helping us grow in our new life. We need to crave pure spiritual milk. Now some say that milk is just for babies, but it’s the protein building blocks for strong bones and muscles. We need milk for life. And in this instance, pure milk! Unadulterated milk. Protein without deceit.

In other words, we need a constant diet of truth to grow in our faith.   Without it, we will have a weak and lethargic faith. Without it, our souls will dine on the empty philosophies of the world, and we won’t be any different from the world. That’s why Paul writes in Romans 12:2, No longer conform your thinking to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  You see, as a new Creation in Christ, you don’t just have a new heart, a spiritual heart, but you have a new mind. So crave God’s Word, dine on good Bible teaching. Start a Bible reading program. Take some time to read the word of God together with your spouse. Join a Journey Group and learn with others.

God has given you an appetite for His Word. He’s given you a way to grow strong in your faith. So don’t let anything get in the way of this new desire He’s given you. And then as you drink deeply at the fountain of life you’ll not only grow in your faith, but God’s Word will transform your life. You’ll begin to see life as He sees it. And that’s leads us to our final truth this morning:

God has given you a New Outlook on Life  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ (that you have His life in you) set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3

Simply put, God has given us a new capacity to understand and live our new life. We have a new heart that gives us a spiritual appetite for the truth and grace of God. But we also have a new mind, the mind of Christ, that can understand and apply God’s will to our lives. So these verses combine the truths about our new heart and new mind, and encourage us to set our hearts on things above, where Christ now reigns, and set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Another way of saying this is that now that God has made us alive with Christ, we are now citizens of heaven and the kingdom of God is our home. So to set our hearts on things above is simply a command telling us that we have a whole new set of values to live by; the values of the kingdom: the same spiritual values that are found in Jesus, such as compassion, kindness, meekness, patience, humility and love.

Setting our hearts on the stuff of heaven, means that we are embracing the command of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, where he said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Setting our minds on the stuff of heaven, and not the things of earth, is God’s way of telling us that we can develop the mind of Christ; we can begin to think and act like Jesus. We can begin to see our world through His eyes. The world’s way of viewing life is to look out for number one; the one who gather’s the most toys wins; the one who works harder and smarter gets the cheese! The world’s way is all about me: what’s in it for me; what can you do for me; how can I get ahead; how can I make enough, how can I acquire enough; and make myself secure enough so that I never have to worry. That’s the way of the earth. But that’s not the way of Jesus.

We’ve died to the way of the world, the old order of things. We now have a new King and we are part of a new kingdom, where we already have it all, because we have Jesus. And He’s enough! This is our new outlook! It’s an outlook that means we get to cease striving, cease worrying, cease manipulating life to go our way. Because we now have a King who is for us in every way.

This is our new life with God! And the beauty of this new life is that we don’t earn it, we certainly don’t deserve it. It’s given to us freely out of the goodness and grace of God’s heart.

So forget about making New Year’s resolutions this year, and let’s starting living this life. The life God gives anyone who turns away from their empty way of life and turns to Jesus. He is the life, and God gives us His life: He recreates us in Jesus, giving us a new heart, a new appetite and a new outlook on life, where Jesus is truly all we need for life. This is why He says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” John 14:6 He is enough!

Let’s pray.