The Core of the "Grace Message" (Gospel) Part 2
I am excited to say that I got round to finishing my article on the Power of the New Creation! You can download the whole article as a PDF "booklet" by clicking the link below. If this is fresh revelation to you as a church or group, then I encourage you to print the article out and distribute it among each other.
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| Right-click / Apple-click to down booklet. |
For now, as a simple blog, I have only pasted in part 2 of the article, as it has turned out to be much longer than I expected! There is just so much material to cover. I will post part 3 as a blog within the next few days. It spreads out your reading. Enjoy!
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New Life Birthed From Above
Ok, so hopefully I have laid a good foundation for understanding the power of the “New Creation”. Let’s go back and have another look at some of the verses I quoted earlier:
Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)
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.
John 3:3 & 6 (NIV)
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again... (6) Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
One translation of Jesus’ words in John 3:5 uses “born from above” instead of “born again”. I love that, because it shows the work of salvation.
When a man receives the Good News of what Jesus has accomplished for them, God births in them new life from above.
What these verses are all pointing to is that when a person hears the Good News (Gospel) of what Jesus accomplished for them on their behalf, and how much God Loves them, and they receive that salvation work as their own; God births in them a new spirit.
And according to Ezekiel’s promise, the old heart of sin and corruption is even removed! And it is replaced with a warm, sensitive, spiritual heart born of God!
Completely New!
Paul then goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 5:17; “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
When a person receives the salvation work of Jesus as their own, they are in Christ. And the old person of who they were is gone! Done away with! And they are an entirely different person altogether!
Now, what is very interesting is to note the original Greek language Paul used when writing this. The Greek word he uses for “new” is the word “kainos”. Now, this is very, very interesting because usually the word “new” is used in Greek as “Neos”. When we understand the difference between the two, it further blows our mind to what really happens to mankind when they are transformed by God’s Love!
Let’s just have a look very quickly at the official Greek translation of the word in Strong’s Greek Lexicon:
“KAINOS”
1. as respects form:
recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn
2. as respects substance:
of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of
“NEOS”
1. recently born, young, youthful
2. New
Notice the difference?! See why it is so important to understand what Paul was saying in this verse? When a man is in Christ, they are not just “renewed” and “young”, no. They are “of a new kind! Unprecedented”!!
I love the example a Biblical scholar once shared with me... Let’s take a car as an example. If you have a 1998 Mercedes Benz C-Class 1,6 car and you receive a “neos” car, you would receive a 2011 Mercedes Benz C-Class 1,6, brand new. No kilometres done on the clock, interior, exterior, all shining in its newness. But it is simply an upgraded version of the original car you had.
But if you a received a “kainos” car, it would be like nothing you have ever seen before! It would be completely different to any car ever made! It would have the ability to fly like a rocket-ship, it wouldn’t use tyres but another form of technology, it would be completely and entirely different to what we usually understand to be a car! This is what it means to be “kainos” new!
You see, this is what happens to the Christian when they are brought into Christ.
Change of Bloodline, Change of Species!
Their bloodline changes. Their very species they originate from changes! They become entirely new!! So completely novel and different they become unlike anything else the world has ever seen!
It is interesting that Paul says earlier in 2 Corinthians 4:18 and 5:7 that “what is unseen is more real than what is seen” and that “we live by faith not by sight”. So while the Christian may not see or sometimes not even necessarily “feel” anything when they “come to Christ”, it is not a physical work, it is an entirely spiritual work! But because the spiritual realm of God is more real than the physical realm, that new spiritual birth can and does effect our physical lives!
You see, it is like this; when a person comes to be in Christ, they change their very DNA. They become a new species! Now, this gives light to what Jesus said to the Gentile Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:27 when he actually referred to her as a dog!
Now, Ephesians 2:11 - 19 tell us that the Gentiles who were once far from God and separated from Him, foreigners, now have access to Him through the Cross. There is now no longer Jew nor Gentile. There is no separation. All are brought near!
What that means is something like this... When mankind fell from their position of “utopia” in the Garden of Eden, something in them died, and death entered the whole world through that “fall” (Romans 5:17). It is as if though mankind became another species, different to God, lower than God.
Using Jesus’ words to the Syrophoenician woman, it is as if though since the “fall”, mankind was like a dog. And the best mankind could do was to be a very good servant to God, his master.
But God loved mankind too much. He didn’t want dogs. He didn’t want to express His Love to slaves. God Loved His “dog” so much that He wanted to marry her!
But the problem was that He was a different species to His “dog”. It was as if though He were a “man” and His beloved was a “dog”. It just wasn’t right to marry.
So He set up the perfect plan of redemption. By crucifying the “dog” species in His own body, He rose again as the “new man”, He legally put in motion the redemption of His beloved to become the same species as Him! And now He is legally allowed to marry His beloved! Because they are no longer dogs, they are like Him! They have been redeemed from what they were!
They are a completely different species!
This is the power of the new creation! In Him we are made completely and entirely new, and become like Him! We are the God-kind!
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Part 2 will be available on the Blog on Monday. If you want the entire article, download it as a PDF at the top of this post!
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Part 2 will be available on the Blog on Monday. If you want the entire article, download it as a PDF at the top of this post!
