New Year, Already New You

Order of Service

• Prelude
• Call to Worship — Psalm 97:1-2, 12
• Hymn — Come, Christians, Join to Sing
• Prayer of Invocation
• Prayer of Confession
• Assurance of Pardon — 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Scripture Reading — Ezekiel 37:1-14
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — All Glory Be to Christ
• Sermon
• The Lord's Supper
  • Hymn — When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (vv. 1–2)
  • Words of Institution — 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
  • Prayer
  • Distribution of Bread
  • Distribution of Cup
  • Hymn — When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (vv. 3–4)
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Christ Makes You New

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

I. Your New Life and the Love of Christ

A. The love of Christ is the singular point of departure for understanding new life

1. Paul draws attention first to Christ's love for his people, not our love for him
2. Any love we have for Christ is secondary and responsive — first things first

B. God's particular love for his people is the ground of redemption

1. Deuteronomy 7:8 — it is because the Lord loves you that he redeemed you
2. Jeremiah 31:3 — I have loved you with an everlasting love
3. John 3:16 — God so loved the world that he gave his only Son

C. Christ's love is displayed most clearly in his death for his people

1. Romans 5:8 — while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
2. Galatians 2:20 — he loved me and gave himself for me
3. 1 John 3:16 — by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us
4. 1 John 4:10 — in this is love: he loved us and sent his Son as propitiation

D. The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement

1. Penal — Christ bears the penalty, the holy wrath of God, in our place
2. Substitutionary — he died in the place of his people, bearing others' sins
3. Atoning — his death satisfies and does away with the penalty and consequences of sin
4. J. I. Packer: "The death of Christ actually put away the sins of all God's elect"

E. Because Christ died for all his people, all his people died with him (2 Corinthians 5:14)

1. His substitutionary death is not isolated from us — we were mystically united to him in it
2. Galatians 2:20 — I have been crucified with Christ
3. As we died with him, so we rose with him — his resurrection life is our resurrection life
4. See Romans 6:4-5, 11 — raised to walk in newness of life

F. Therefore: if anyone is in Christ, new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

1. Paul's pen shouts it — "new creation" stands alone, emphatic in the Greek
2. Like the vine and branches: all spiritual life flows from Christ into the believer
3. The old has passed away; the new has come — regardless of how you feel, if you believe, you already have new life

II. Your New Life and the Fruit of Christ

A. The goal of Christ's saving work: that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him (2 Corinthians 5:15)

1. Romans 6:4 — raised with Christ to walk in newness of life

B. Christ produces in the believer a new devotion and loyalty (2 Corinthians 5:14)

1. The word controls (or compels, Greek: synechō) means to hold together, to sustain — a personal force pressing upon someone
2. The love of Christ forcefully — though not against the redeemed will — presses us to live increasingly for his glory
3. Charles Hodge: "He only is a Christian who lives for Christ"
4. The old self, though dead in Christ, still whispers — we must meet its voice with the word of God
5. Application: For whom are you living? You cannot have Christ and keep your sinful self as your devotion

C. Christ produces in the believer a new mindset (2 Corinthians 5:16)

1. Paul before conversion regarded Christ and people only according to external appearances — Pharisaic criteria
2. On the Damascus road, God gave Paul new sight: he now saw Christ as the Son of God and people as those for whom Christ died
3. Believers are likewise given new eyes — no longer judging by mere externals
4. New mindset means fellowship with Christ and with his people; seeing them as Christ sees them