Latest / Accidental Bible Scholar / The New Creation in the New Covenant, Part 3
Transcript
- Jeff Ward: Okay. Welcome back to the Accidental Bible Scholar podcast. We're excited to be here. We're glad you joined us again. Today, we're going to continue talking about a new creation operating under the new covenant, what that means for us as believers. And Randy's going to about our identity as that new No further ado. All right. Let's step into it. because what's important here is this new creation. And we've talked about it being plugged into the new covenant and then plugged back in, righteously so, into the Genesis one covenant that is still in effect. The first one I'm talking about is a new creation. I'll just read from 2nd Corinthians 5:17 It says, so then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. What is old has passed away. Look, what is new has come. So all right into the Corinthians here. First of all, he says we're in Christ. We won't go into a lot of detail here, but the Testament says we're in Christ over a hundred times. So it's a fact, okay? And it has many, many implications. One of those is that we have become a new creation. So prior to us confessing Jesus as Lord, we were one creature. Now we brand new, okay? And it says, things, I mean, what is old has passed away. Look, what is new has come. I think it's the new King James says, all things are new. So all things are new. And that's what goes back to what was telling you later. We have a different set of rules. We have a different set of powers and laws and things we're subject to and things we are no longer subject to. All has changed because we've been recreated into a brand new kingdom. But here by the cross, the burial, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ. That's what we did. We were in Christ as he did each of these and is still ascended. This new creation, you and I, we are perfectly suited to rule and reign, bring about God's will on earth as it is in heaven. OK, so I probably need to stop and back up. Well, no, there you go. So now we're going to talk about a few things. One, we are. totally forgiven. So we'll go into that next. I stole this phrase from Matt Chandler. Again, I'm mentioning him twice now, but he says we're freely, fully forgiven forever. I love that. Just for us right there. Yeah. Freely, fully forgiven forever. And it is so hard for us to comprehend that. Yeah. And then it is, I think it's even, or just as hard for teachers to even say that. And when you find a teacher that will say that, it's even harder for us to totally receive that. I you are, all believers are freely, fully, forgiven forever. And that not something would us to go out and it doesn't create a license to go sin, do whatever we want as far as sinful acts. What it does, it creates this powerful position that we can say no to things that are not Christ. We can say no to temptations. We can say no to the evil spirits, to the demonic realm that's trying to deceive us, that's trying to pull us away. That's the power of this. removes the power the accuser of the brethren ⁓ over because our guilt is gone. our shame is gone because we are totally freely, fully forgiven forever. I want to read some scriptures here and I just haven't listed out that way to save us a little time, but I'll talk about them as I go. The point is, I just want to, and I could do a lot more than this. I do one, two, three, four, four scriptures, but I could have put several others up here. Acts 10, 43, this is Peter. speaking to Cornelius and Cornelius household and Cornelius friends. He was a centurion here in Acts 10. Acts 10, 43, says, about him, that's Christ, about Christ, all the prophets testified that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Peter's saying we forgive, we are forgiven of our sins through his name. He's even say all the prophets, so all these Old Testament prophets testify to that. So he's calling forward the prophecies of the old Testament and he's declaring right here now. I think what's raised I said remember the number one The greatest commandment in the New Covenant's 1 John 3:20 believe in his name Here's one of the things that his name does is that we receive forgiveness of sins through his name the name of Jesus Christ Romans 4:7-8 I quote 8 fairly fairly regularly in Sunday school, different things. It says, happy is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin. And you me jokingly, and maybe it's not jokingly, I don't know, that contend if we were to go say that in of the foyers of some of the churches in our town here, might get dog piled beat up or thrown out. If I were to say, happy is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin. Or if I just changed it to me and I went. and go, hey, the Lord will never count my sin against me. You know, I probably would be in some churches thrown out, but it's true. That's Romans 4, 8. Romans, I'm gonna read seven and eight. This is Paul quoting David and bringing it from the Old Testament and the New Testament. says, he says, blessed that word means happy. Happy are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Happy is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin. It doesn't get a whole lot plainer than that that you and I are fully freely forgiven forever. Right. OK. Another example, Ephesians 1:7-8 talking about in him again in Christ. This is one of the 100 times that it talks about us being in him. It's actually quite a bit more than 100. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. Again, in him, we have the forgiveness of our offenses according to what? It doesn't say according to how sincere we are, according to us staying out of trouble, according to us being able to do X, Y, Z. It doesn't matter. It says, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. Those are big words. Those are big words. And what an awesome picture that this paints. If you would just, if you and I, first of all, I happy as the one against whom the Lord never counts sin, meditate on that. What about meditating on this? Just trying to comprehend being in him and there's redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our offenses according to the riches of his grace, they lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. Those are just, like I said, some amazing words, but what's it mean? We are fully, freely forgiven forever. Yeah. That's one verse. that says that and we have several others here. Actually, we one of them on cover today. One of my favorite little sections of the Bible is Colossians 2. And here's 13, 14, and 15. I could probably start early on. Start with, I mean, I could probably stop at one verse, but here's like, let's do all three. says, this is Colossians 2 verses 13 through 15. says, and even though you were dead in your transgressions, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross. I bring back, call you back to verse 13, having forgiven all your transgressions. It's done. You're totally, you're fully, freely forgiven forever. I this thing about this certificate of ⁓ expressed in opposed to us. I want you to picture, I don't know, some movie or your thought back to like some medieval times, right? And there's this, the town friar he's going to make this announcement and you're a judge is making this announcement and he's got this guy over here who's doesn't look like he's had a tough couple of days. Okay. But he's in chains and he pulls out the certificate of indebtedness and through decrees, he's going to, he's going to decree, make decrees against this man. And he's going to read out the judicial certificate of indebtedness. This man is guilty of this. He's guilty of this. He's guilty of this. He is guilty of this. And today where he is going to be executed and he's going to announce his punishment maybe hanging or going to hang or however this is and hear you hear you kind of a that that is and this man not having a good day, right? And it's it's all accurate and judicial. Right. There was one of those against you and I. but it is no longer there. It's if we had this guy and he went to find the certificate of indebtedness and can't find it. The judge can't find it. The judge is actually maybe, if it's the judge, is the one that says it's gone. There's nothing. The chains evaporate from this guy. Now he's clothed in righteousness. He's in a righteous robe. He's got a ring on his finger and soles, I mean, and shoes on his feet. That's what happened at the cross. And he disarmed them. executioner is disarmed. The is disarmed. The jury is disarmed. The town friar that is going to make these decrees against this man are totally disarmed. That's you and I. Freely forgiven. Fully freely forgiven forever. That's crazy. Just thinking there was a list. Yeah. probably feel like we're filling that list up every day. Yeah. It's already gone. Yeah. There's no list nowhere to be found. Disgracing, making a public disgrace of the rulers and authorities. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Okay. Crazy. They were publicly disgraced because they kind of brought their own rope to their own hanging, right? I mean, they were the ones that destroyed it because they were the ones that put Christ on the cross. Exactly. They were the ones that throw the nails in the hand. Now, he surrendered his life. I'm not saying that but they were the ones that took it. Right. or they also took it. Never thought of that way. Okay. Next thing we're talking about is free. We are free from so many things. And to get us going, if you mind, look up Galations 5:1 Sure. for freedom. Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Okay. For freedom, he set us free. He set us free not so that it would benefit him in some way. He set us free because freedom is the right thing. He set us free because he wanted us free. he hints there, or this whole book of Galatians actually, is saying don't go back into slavery. Don't go back into the law. Don't go back into those powers and laws that were in effect in the old kingdom of darkness. You've been delivered from that and set free. Don't go back. You can go back. You can surrender and submit yourself to that again. This is earlier. He talks about the elemental spirits of this world, the basic spirit. You can go back and surrender back to those. Don't. You're free to go. You're free to walk away. And it's like the guy I just described. There's nothing to read. He's dressed fantabulous in There's no chains on him. It would be like he chose to stay Okay, Lead me to the gallows. Sure. You know, it's like, no. Walk away. You have to go back. Let me read you some things and then we'll go look up scripture. You're free from the of sin. You're free from the power of death. You're free from the authority and power. free from the power of sin. You're free the power of death. You're free from the authority and power. of the devil. You're free from the law or religion. It can no longer condemn you. law is said to have the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of death in 2nd. Corinthians 3. You're free from guilt and accusation. You're free from the world system. You're free from the power of the flesh. You're free from the power of fear and bondage. You're free from the power of darkness. You're free from ⁓ judgment. of the devil. You're free from law or religion. It can no longer condemn you. The is said to have the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of death in 2nd. Corinthians 3. You're free from guilt and accusation. You're free from the world system. You're free from the power of the flesh. You're free from the power of fear and bondage. You're free from the power of darkness. You're free from eternal judgment. let me just go into some of these, free from the power of sin. Sin can no longer rules you. Sin no longer can enslave you. Sin can no longer condemn you. Romans 6:6-7 says that the old man was crucified, so that the body of would no longer dominate us, as anyone who has died has been free from sin. That's what Paul says. So, in Galatians 2:20 says, I've been crucified with Christ. Romans 6:6 says, was my old man that was crucified. And I no longer have to listen to that guy. He no longer dominates me. The power of sin has no more power over me. Romans 6:14 says, sin will have no mastery over you because you are not under law but under grace. you're not under the law but under grace sin has no mastery over you. Sin, another verse says sin does not dominate you. You're no longer dominated by sin. Romans 8:2 Romans 8:2 will maybe be something we can go into later because it's there's two laws in effect. One's out does or replaces the other. It says the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. the law of sin and death you are free from. And now the law that governs us, the powers that govern us is the law of the spirit of life Jesus Christ. We used to be under the spirit of sin and death, we are now under the law of. of life in Christ Jesus. I said that wrong, you know what mean? What about the power of death? Death has been totally disarmed, totally defeated. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15 says, he destroyed the one who holds the power of death. Talking about Satan. Satan has the power of death, but Christ destroyed it. And he set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. We don't have fear death anymore. interesting that it says that we were, we, the human race, all of us were held in slavery all their lives due to the fear of death. And you can see that in the world. You can see people that that the idea of death, they either ignore it so much or it dominates them. Either way. They ignore it and don't plan for it, don't understand the accountability that they'll have, or they worry about it so much that they're already in hell basically because of the fear. 1 Corinthians 15, 54 through 57, here's just the highlights of it. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory. In the second, 2nd. Timothy 1 10, Christ Jesus has broken the power of death. So death is no longer a threat, is no longer has a say, and no longer is a final authority of any kind. And then the power of the devil or the satanic dominion, this kingdom of darkness we've been delivered from. We already talked about Collosians 2:15 where the rulers and authorities have been totally disarmed. We have triumphed in Christ over them by the cross. And then 1 John 3, the son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. So he's done. I put here another note. Satan operates solely through deception. The only way I can get that guy that I don't have decrees to read against and there's no chains and he's dressed properly and he's not been already determined not guilty. Only way I can get him to go to the gallows is if he'll walk to the gallows on his own. I can't legally grab him and put him on the gallows. It's through deception that he works. It's through accusation. He tried to make you think that he still owns that certificate on you and that certificate is non-existent. This law, the law has lost its ability to condemn you. Romans 7.4, you died the law through the body of Christ. In Romans chapter seven, the part of the law that's being talked about is the 10 commandments. If you go read about it, I think it's in verse eight talking about, it talks about covenants. Covenants is one of the big 10, right? Romans 8.1, there's now no condemnation there. There's now therefore no condemnation for those who are in. Christ Jesus. Galatians 3, 24 through 25. We're no longer under this guardian, which was the law, but now through faith we've been released from that. And then the fifth one here, power of condemnation and guilt. We're not condemned. Righteous to be righteous means to be declared not guilty. So we are not guilty. We've been declared it. Now my resume may say otherwise, the God, the one that matters, the God of the universe, the one who when speaks, is truth just by the fact that came out of his mouth makes it true he's the one that said that you and I are righteous and we've that's a we'll talk about that a little bit. I love Romans 8:33 for who will bring any charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies. Justifies means to make righteous. So it is God who makes us righteous. And I'll read their actual thing here later, but Hebrews 10:17 says, are sins and there are lawless deeds. I will remember no more. He says that in verse 8, too. I mean, chapter 8 of Hebrews. That's a big enough deal that God himself in the scripture mentions it twice within three chapters that he will remember our deeds no more, our lawless deeds, our sins and our lawless deeds no more. We're delivered from the power of this world system. In Galatians 1 4, says that we've been rescued. He rescued us from this present evil age. John 16:33 Jesus speaking that I have conquered the world. Tell them I conquered the world on our behalf. Then later he calls us in Romans 8, calls us overcomers or more than conquerors. John, 1 John 5:4-5 says this is the victory that that he has conquered the world and it's through our faith that we then conquer the Sin, the power of the flesh. So when I talk about the power of the flesh that we're relieved from, normally flesh, when ⁓ believer hears flesh, they think immorality. And a lot of times the way the Bible, the way the New Testament uses that Greek word flesh, that's right. But flesh can mean also just of the five senses. And we talked about that earlier. an earlier podcast and we're talking about 1st Corinthians 2. But of the five senses, so you and I are delivered from the power of our five senses. And then of course, the sin, fleshly sin that would come from that. We are no longer dominated by that. Here's what Romans 8 and 9 says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. And later it'll say we walk according to the spirit, not according to the flesh. So we walk by the spirit, by faith. Our five senses don't dominate us. We walk by faith in a different realm. There's multiple places to about that we have crucified the flesh. So the power of fear and bondage. Fear may be one of the number one sins in church today. By volume is the commandment that's given the most in the Bible. I've never counted, but somebody told me there's 365, one for every day of the year. Command saying is do not fear. It's because fear is a spirit. And if we fear, we give into it, we open ourselves up into all kinds of attacks from, from Satan and his minions. Romans 7, 8, 15 says, you do not receive a spirit of slavery leading again to fear. we didn't receive it. We got to get out of that. We can and surrender to it, but we choose not to. But here through deception, we can be brought into subjection to fear. And that's where many believers are. Worry, anxiety, those would all be offshoots of the spirit of fear. Let's see, we talked about the power of darkness, talk about eternal judgment. See what I want to say about that. We already read Colossians 1.13, but he rescued us from the domain of darkness. He transferred us into the kingdom of his dearly loved son. Ephesians 5.8 says, you were once darkness, but now you are light. in the Lord. you know, what's funny and I'm trying to think now where it is, John 7, did John 6 or 7, I've said, okay, I'm the light of the world to people in Sunday school a few times and they can get offended at that. I'm just quoting what Jesus said. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. And I'm like, oh, you can't go wrong by just quoting what scripture says about you and then believing it. Romans talk about being from the power of judgment or eternal, the second death. Revelation 26 says that these have overcome the second, or the second death has no power over believers. Jesus says in John 11 26, everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. So that's, are the things that we are free from. Those are stated facts. Yes. Stated, that is not my opinion. is no, I did not in that whole thing ever give my opinion. I gave what the word of God says directly and succinctly. so it's up now you and I and and every believer to live according to God's word, free from those things. And as Galatians 1 says, don't go back, Galatians 5.1, as Galatians 5.1 says, don't go back to it. Stand in your freedom because you have been set free for freedom's sake. And that's kind of the story of the whole book of Galatians is don't go back into the law, but don't go back into these anythings. Don't go back into sin, death. Don't start listening devil. Religion has the is con-condemning and a ministry of death, don't go back there. Even guilt and accusation, we've been free from all that. Questions or comments or thoughts? We'll go to righteousness next