A BRAND NEW YOU!! (Part 1)

 

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:16: Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth, know we HIM no more: Vs 17: Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Vs 18: And all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

Paul, Apostle of Jesus Christ is the author of First & Second Corinthians and wrote four letters addressing the struggling life styles of the Corinthians. Many of them had converted to Christianity and struggling with their environment because of persecution, sexual immoralities, you name it. They were surrounded by corruption and every conceivable sin and feeling the pressure to adapt.

Paul encourages all Christians to be careful not to blend in with the world. Don’t be like a Chameleon that will blend in with their surrounding for survival. They will turn green on a bed of grass and on the earth, it becomes brown. The animal changes to match its environment. Many creatures blend into nature with God-given camouflage suits to aid their survival. It’s natural to fit in and adapt to the environment.

But followers of Christ are new creations, born from above and changed from within. Our scripture describes what it means when God makes a man brand new. True believers don’t blend in well, because you’re made to be different - not the same as the other, unlike in nature, form, or quality unrelated, unconnected, an unassociated, individual.

Note, scripture states, “IF” meaning there are stipulations, conditions that must be met before things happen. So, before you can become brand new, you must be in Christ (out of self, the world, no more in the flesh). This is a promise of what God will do in your life if you will receive Him as your Savior.

Who better to tell the story than expert witness Apostle Paul? A true witness of God, one who was on the scene, suffered much persecution, one that experienced supernatural transformation from his old self to a brand-new creation.

Before Paul’s conversion, then Saul, a living, breathing threat to the Christians, was journeying near Damascus, the most promising young Rabbi in Jerusalem was supervising the persecution and execution of Christians. This is the one circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, parents both native Jews, called himself a Hebrew of Hebrews; of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, a persecutor, and blameless according to the ceremonial law. He was educated and studied divinity and Jewish Law, tutored by Gamaliel, a Jewish Law Teacher, a high-ranking Pharisee. Your rank or status means nothing to God.  He looks at the heart of man.

Time was when his only canon of evaluation was whether or not someone met the strict Pharisaical standards of Mosaic ceremonialism. If he did, he was a brother. If he didn’t, he was a dog. And NOW, he’s singing a new song, “There is neither Jew nor Greek.” What happened? Let me be the first to tell you, “REGENERATION HAPPENED”. 

As Saul, he had no problem persecuting the Apostles of God as he was on the road to Damascus.

Scripture said, “Suddenly a light (Risen Savior) shone around him from heaven” (Acts 9).  He fell to the ground and the rest is history, “old things passed away and behold, all things became new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I’m sure Saul turned every way he could, only to find himself surrounded with nothing but light. Its design was not only to startle him, but to awaken his attention, so he could hear when he was made to see, and to enlighten his understanding with the knowledge of Christ.

The devil comes to the soul in darkness so he can possess and keep possession of it. But Christ comes to the soul in light, for He is Himself, “the Light of the World”. Understand, the first thing in the new creation is light/illumination, Genesis, 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light”. If God is light, then all Christians are children of the light and of the day” Ephesians 5:8/1Thessalonians 5:5.

In II Corinthians, we are going to discover a unique gem of truth describing an entirely new breed of man, the kind which this world has never seen before. From Paul’s life and scripture, you can clearly see a difference between the old man vs the new man.

 Paul is talking about two conditions that are necessary (unavoidable; needful; not optional) for our entrance into the Kingdom of God, and living in Christ, both of which are consequences of Christ dying for us and both are a requirement: “regeneration” and the “new birth”!

FIRST – REGENERATION:

In “REGENERATION” (paliggenesi’a), this rebirthing is a spiritual renovation (renewing; restoring, repairing, refreshing, purifying) or translation from the “old man” (flesh; carnal nature), into the “new man” (spiritual nature).

Regeneration is more than shedding tears because of temporary remorse over sin. It is more than changing your course of life, or leaving off bad habits and substituting good ones. It is something new and different. It involves a transition from the old life of sin to a new life of love and obedience to Jesus Christ. God takes hold of one who is spiritually dead and quickens (make alive) him/her into newness of life. He takes up one who was shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin and conforms him to the image of His Son. God comes to one who is full of enmity against Him and gives him a new heart that’s full of love for Him.

Paul here is speaking from experience because before his conversion, he knew Christ only after the flesh (merely another man). To know Christ by the flesh is to know HIM only as a human being, by human standard, but he came to know Him by the Spirit!

REGENERATION - it’s a process, it’s a miracle, resulting from a supernatural operation of God, it’s radical, it’s revolutionary, and it’s lasting. Our entrance into the Kingdom is based on the following two things and the first one is:

1.    2 Corinthians 5:16: Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh: yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth (from now on), know we him no more.  

He was known from the human perspective which is a knowing only after the flesh. How did they know Jesus? They knew HIM as the firstborn of Joseph, the carpenter and his wife Mary. They knew His hometown. They knew how He talked and smiled growing up as a little boy. This is what is called fleshly knowledge, or the outward human knowledge. Jesus was known naturally without knowledge of His spiritual worth. As Jesus began to walk in His earthly ministry their knowledge of Him changed. They moved from knowing Him in the flesh to knowing Him in the spirit, meaning seeing who He really was spiritually.

We have to learn to see people from the perspective of the spirit. The real man/inner man is on the inside. You may know someone’s hometown, family background. You may know their social interest, including their sins and disgusting past life. This is because you were schoolmates, or worked on the same job, lived in the same community.  But, when anyone is in Christ, they are a brand-new creature or creation. Then, you happen to attend an event, and they‘re the speaker of the hour. You then, began to see them in a different light or new view. We have to see people not based on the flesh, but from the perspective of the spirit.

This reaches even to the level of family. Matthew 28:48, someone lets Jesus know His mother and brothers were waiting to speak with Him. His response is just stunning: Jesus answered - “Who is my mother and who are my brothers? Stretching His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold my mother and my brothers”! Jesus was regarding no man or woman after the flesh, not even His own family. What mattered is whether or not they believed in Him. Nationalism means nothing, ethnicity is nothing, and Jesus has a thicker bond with the children of God than He does even with His own mother!

When God sent the Prophet Samuel to Jesse’s house to anoint a king, He said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for they look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7). If we fail to see people from the perspective of the spirit, we will not receive what God can do in our lives through them. Jesus was sent by God to the Jews first, but He was rejected because He didn’t look like the Messiah, John 10-22-41. They wanted to stone Him for calling Himself, “the Son of God”. They missed their blessing.

 As unbelievers, we all once regarded Christ from a fleshly point of view, according to worldly standards, focusing on the way things look outwardly rather than internally/spiritually. But the regenerate (spiritually rebirthed; spiritually renovated), regard Him in this way no longer.

John 20, take a look at Mary at the empty tomb, she’s weeping about the loss of her Savior when she should have been rejoicing. She was looking for HIS body. Jesus was right at her side, but unknowing to her, in a different form (spirit). Mary stoops to look into the grave (vs 11), that’s what uncontrolled grief will do. It will cause you to have no hope when you should be walking by faith and not by sight. When we are moved by the flesh and not by the spirit, we stoop down occupied by things below.

 The attitude of the believer should be that of Psalm 123:1 “Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwells in the heavens”. With all that’s going on around us, hatred, turmoil, Pandemic, wars, rumors of wars, men’s hearts are failing them for fear and the things that’s going on in the earth.

The more we are occupied by the evil that’s around us, the more our hearts will fail, but Luke 21:18, But there shall not a hair of your head perish. Luke 21:28 When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws nigh.

So instead of looking down like Mary, say Psalm 121:1: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? Vs 2: MY help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and the earth.

Note, John 20:11-13 two angels questioned Mary as to why she was weeping and she responded, “They have taken my Lord and I don’t know where”. In verse 14 she turns and sees Jesus, but He stood as a common person and Mary saw Him as such, the Gardener. His resurrection body was very different from that known of His body before the crucifixion.

Why? Because He was to be known no more after the flesh, but as the Head of the New Creation, He was Spirit, The Christ. The role of Jesus’ flesh body on the cross was ended, His earthly ministry was ended. He would no longer walk with them in the flesh, in the same physical status as formerly known, but in another form, Spirit form, in the many-membered body spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:12. Confirming Luke 17:20: The Kingdom of God does not come with observation/ocular vision. Vs 21: “For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you”. That’s why Mary didn’t recognize HIM, because she was looking for His physical body. As the risen Christ He would dwell in the heart of the believer!

After the resurrection, Christ was to be known in a new way, and no longer after the flesh, but in spirit, on High, being within His people!

John 20:16, when Jesus called her name “Mary” she recognized her Savior, and said, “Rabboni”, meaning “My Great Master”.  She wanted to express her joy and pleasure by embracing Him. He said to her, in verse 17 “Touch ME not, for I have not yet ascended unto my Father”, meaning, she was detached from Him by all earthly contact, it had to be by spirit now. In Matthew 28:9 He allowed women to take hold of His feet and worship Him. He didn’t want Mary to become familiar with Him as she formerly knew Him and His bodily presence.

Instead, commune with Him by faith and in spirit on High. John 4:24 God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

iHim==kkdkjjj   John portrays Christ as the Son of God, connected with the sons as Head of the new creation, the members of which know Him and “not after the flesh” (II Corinthian 5:16). The resurrection of Christ linked us with Himself as the Son of God in the Father’s House!

Before Paul’s conversion, he knew Christ only after the flesh (merely another man). To know Christ by the flesh is to know HIM only as a human being, human standard, and not as Savior or Lord. After he knew the significance of Christ’s death, he no longer looked upon HIM the same. Paul’s, inner man had undergone a complete transformation, he was a new creature. When Christ take hold of your life, you are no longer the same, not only was Saul not the same, but God even gave him a new name, as Paul meaning, restrained, constrained, representing the word of the Spirit of Truth, as Saul meaning (desired, little), representing human will, was now brought under subjection to the Spirit of God!

After Paul’s conversion, this proud Pharisee, who once scorned the Gentiles and Jews outside his group, John 7:49: But this people who know not the law are cursed, now looks beyond the mere outward appearance of men, showing us when Christ comes into our life, He changes the way we evaluate people. Human standards are no longer adequate for judging them. God changes everything about us. All of Paul’s prejudice and hatred gave way to love for all.

Let us move into the Peter class with the ability to see more than Jesus but see Christ!  Matthew 16:13-19 (Peter’s confession):  vs 16: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!  Vs 17: And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona:  for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”  Vs 19: And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

The “new man” walks in the power of the Holy Ghost: 

·       Mark 16:17-18: These signs shall follow them that believe.  In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

·       Luke 10:19: I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy:  and nothing shall by any means hurt you!

·       Acts 1:8: You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:  and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

All these things happen because the “new man” has a “new mind”:

·       1 Corinthians 2:16b: But we have (present tense) the mind of Christ!

·       Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you (we have it now) which was also in Christ Jesus.  Vs 6: Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God!

·       1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world.

So let the “brand new man” rule and reign in the name of Jesus the Christ!!

Evangelist Brenda Hansley