Preachers
are often asked a lot of questions. Over
my career of nearly 40 years I was asked some doozies. Once after church a man who rarely stayed
awake during the sermon and was usually proud of being cantankerous came to me
and said, “Preacher, I’ve got a question.”
I thought, “This is great, he finally
listened and something peaked his interest.” He looked serious and said, “Was the heater working today, I almost
froze to death?”
There
are other times when preachers are asked really tough questions. Some try to
trick the minister, as the Pharisees did with Jesus, but most are truly seeking
answers for life’s difficult struggles.
I have known long-time active church members to struggle with serious
issues in their marriage, family, personal life, finances, and old habits that
just won’t seem to go away. I am often
reminded of a book from my days as a young Christian; If God loves me, Why
Can’t I Get My Locker Open? No
matter what age we may be there seems to be recurring questions that many of us
wrestle with; “Why am I, as a Child of
God, having all this trouble?” “Preachers
preach about life changing power so why is it that there are so many things in
my life are the same and sometimes seemingly worse?”
Biblical
Christianity is not about following rules, rituals or attendance at religious
events and receiving blessings…no matter what you may hear. Some struggles we encounter in life are there
for our growth & perfection (Hebrews 2:10).
Too often we give up & believe change is impossible. Human behavior experts tell us that after age
30 we rarely change. Some habits,
addictions and scars are too deep.
However we are not talking about human behavior. The Gospel is the power to change anything in
your life, at any time. Romans 1:16 and II Corinthians 5:17 are just two
examples.
Let’s
look at ‘Life Changing Power’ as
referred to in II Corinthians 5:17 and break it down word for word and phrase
by phrase. “Therefore” refers to the
previous verses (14, 15), the additional consequences of identification with Christ
in death & resurrection. Christianity
is not for the casual observer - it requires complete surrender. However, it is available to “Anyone”,
as John 3:16 tells us that ‘whosever believes’ “In Christ” which is a favorite term for Paul. Paul doesn’t say ‘in church, in a denomination,
movement, or experience’; but “in Christ”! This implies a personal daily involvement and
relationship with the risen Lord. ‘In
Christ’ means all things that are Christlike in you: love, joy…the
fruit of the Spirit as defined in Galatians 5:22. If this Fruit is not demonstrated in your
life, it may be evidence of the absence of Christ. One can be in church and be unchanged; this
is not so if one is in Christ!
Paul
then speaks of a “New Creation”. There are two Greek words for
new: NEOS & KAINOS. NEOS refers to the most
recent production. For instance, “I broke my red pencil so I got a new green
pencil.” It is new but it is still a
pencil like the old one. However, KAINOS means new as to form or of a
different nature from the old. Here
is an example of Kainos; “My old mode of
transportation was a bicycle. My new
mode of transportation is a Ferrari.”
This ‘new’ is not comparable with anything from my past. Here is why
this Greed stuff is important; Paul uses the word, KAINOS to describe the
newness that comes from being ‘in Christ’.
This is what ‘new in Christ’ means…it is incomparable with anything from the
past. It is not just trying to be a better person. It is being a person who is completely
changed ‘in Christ.’
“Creation” comes from a
construction term (the act of establishing or building). A completely new thing or being is
established. A person reborn in Christ is the fulfillment of God’s original
purpose in creation. We were created in
His image. Our life is to be a
reflection of Christ. (Matthew 5:14).
What
happens after we become a new creation? Well the “Old Things”’ (Archia
in Greek, from which we get our
word, ‘Archaic’ meaning outdated, belonging to past times) are
passed away. Old things, refers to
unregenerated ways, acts of sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-20). All ways or actions that do not reflect or
glorify Christ are passing away. “Passed Away” is translated from
a Greek tense that we do not have in the English language or grammar. Sorry to get bogged down in a Greek lesson
but try to stay with me. I promise you
it is worth it in the end…and there is not going to be a test…at least not from
me.
In the English language
we have three tense forms in our sentence structure; past, present and
future. The Greek verb has three VOICES,
the active, middle, and passive. There
are four MOODS, the indicative, subjunctive, optative, and imperative. There
are seven TENSES, the present, imperfect, future, aorist, perfect, pluperfect,
and future perfect. There are three
PERSONS, 1st person, 2nd person, and third person. Now you know why some guys drop out of
seminary rather than study
Greek. Maybe you should have more respect for those
of us who stuck it out with all this stuff.
Anyway in this passage
the Aorist
tense is used rather than the Imperfect tense which would normally be used. The Imperfect tense implies continuous action
in past time; ‘I was eating lunch.’ This leaves the action open because, ‘I may continue eating later.’ However the Aorist tense implies finished
action; ‘I ate supper.’ ‘I’m done with this and moving on!’ This implies leaving sin as a way of
life. Sinful ways either going or
gone. I don’t need them anymore. “Behold”;
here
is a note of triumph! Because of the life of triumphant changing power…“All
Things Become New”. This is expressed
in the Greek perfect tense which means three things;
- It refers to action in continuous
progress – This is not one time event, God is not finished with you yet!
Each day is part of my journey where old ways that are not Christlike are
passing away and each day I am becoming a new creation ‘in Christ’,
- It refers to a process that is coming
to a point of culmination – I will become completely like Jesus in Heaven
- It exists as a completed result – When you are ‘in Christ’, Jesus has already done all He needs to do in you! You just need to continue in Him by faith each day.
Now,
I don’t know what you got out of all this (if you didn’t quit reading) but here
is what it meant to me. As a
perfectionist I would often get down and depressed when I continued to struggle
with old habits that did not ‘honor Christ’.
I would question my faith and salvation wondering if I was truly a child
of God since I seemed to struggle so much with my ‘old nature’. However, when I realized that becoming ‘new’ is a continuous process it seemed
to whack me in the forehead and I realized that each day is a new day and moves
me toward the completed result. I am no
longer frustrated when I fall short of the perfection of Christ, but I realize
that I am a work in progress. I begin
and end each day thanking God for the day.
No matter what has happened in the past or will happen in the future, I
am moving forward and becoming new!
Happy New Day!
