New Creation in Jesus

—Conclusion (pt14)

 
 
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• Andrew Fountain – May 12, 2013

More of You and less of Me

• We sing “more of you and less of me”
• Do we become less and less and our individual personality become submerged and lost?
• Or do we stay “us” but now have his supernatural power?

1. The New Creation is Jesus

• The New Creation is in Christ
• Meaning: in his resurrection he opened up the gateway to a new kind of humanity, and became the first New Man
• “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” [1 Cor 15:45]
• Everyone who enters, is born into his image. We bear the likeness of the new man
• “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” [1 Cor 15:49]

Ephesians 1:16–21

16. I do not cease to [pray], …that you may know…
19. …what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
20. that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21. far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

The following things amount to the same:

• born again (lit. born from above)
• Christlike
• Spirit-filled
• A new creation (made alive: Eph 2:)

4. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5. even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ

Jesus modelled dependence

• John 5:19 “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do; for whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner.”
• John 5:30 “I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.”
• John 14:10 “the Father who dwells in me does the works.”
• John 5:26 “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.”

Ephesians 5,6

1. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
8. for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
14. for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Resurrection power continues, Eph 3:16–20

16. that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love…
19. …may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

How to get there, Eph 4:22–24

22. …to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23. and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24. and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

• Don’t damage the umbilical:

13. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, (Eph 1)
30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Eph 4)

1 Corinthians 15

10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

1. Dead to the old

• Salvation is about death to the old in Christ
• This severs us from the demands of the law
• the law only has dominion over this creation
  • By dying in union with Christ’s death, the demands of the old are met and we are no longer under law
• To be no-longer under law is only possible through severing this connection

2. The new is love

• being under grace means living in the new creation where the law is the new commandment
• the new creation is in the Spirit, with a new heart
• members of the new creation are born of God in the sense that we have his nature in us through the Spirit
• this means that we will love as he is love
• and so we will naturally obey the new commandment
• it is grace because this new life is a gift
• there is still a requirement, but the new heart, born of the stuff of the Spirit, will naturally obey

3. Only by dependence

• In his resurrection Jesus began this new life, in the Spirit
• The mode of existence of the new is dependence (active faith/trust) in the power of Jesus to sustain us moment by moment
• The result of this will be that we will live the new life, in accordance with the new heart in us
• The new being is not wholly independent, but totally reliant in its very being, just as the branch is to the vine.
• We walk in faith as we live in trust on the new power.

Conclusion

• Your a lot taller than you think you are!
• Your a lot stronger than you think you are!
• You should be lot more dependent than you are!
• …and this is probably your main problem