Reading: 2 Cor. 5:17-21

MAIN THOUGHT: Every Christian is wonderfully and beautifully made. It’s time to walk in the light of the New Creation.

JOHN WESLEY’S COMMENTARY

17. Therefore if any one be in Christ — A true believer in him. There is a new creation — Only the power that makes a world can make a Christian. And when he is so created, the old things are passed away — Of their own accord, even as snow in spring. Behold — The present, visible, undeniable change! All things are become new — He has new life, new senses, new faculties, new affections, new appetites, new ideas and conceptions. His whole tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives, as it were, in a new world. God, men, the whole creation, heaven, earth, and all therein, appear in a new light, and stand related to him in a new manner, since he was created anew in Christ Jesus.

HE GIVES US BEAUTY

Everything looks different, but the change is within. . .

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12, KJV).

For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. (Psalms 149:4, KJV).

Some people think that they are doing God a favor by demeaning themselves, when you put yourself down, you are ridiculing God’s creation. Give God the glory and begin to see yourself in a new light.

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. (Isaiah 52:1-2, KJV).

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! (Isaiah 52:7, KJV).

Your feet are beautiful because you carry the beautiful message of redemption and reconciliation that Jesus died for our sins, and is risen from the dead.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. (Isaiah 61:3-4, KJV).

NEW CREATION BEAUTY TIPS:

1. KNOW YOURSELF AFTER THE SPIRIT, NOT AFTER THE FLESH

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. (2 Corinthians 5:16, KJV).

We are not to know anyone after the flesh, including ourselves. We talk about dying to self, but in reality, we don’t want to die to our “new self.” We want to crucify the flesh (the old sinful nature), but we need to identify with our new nature which is “in Christ.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4, KJV).

2. LET YOUR SPIRIT MAN DOMINATE YOUR LIFE

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (2 Corinthians 6:1, KJV).

You have received the grace of God to walk in God’s holiness. He HAS put His laws in your heart. As you believe in the New Creation, walk in the New Creation, and you will find yourself gaining strength.

3. RECEIVE IT NOW

(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2, KJV).

Don’t put off your victory celebration. You may say:

• “I’ll be happy when my family is in order. . .
• when I pay off all my bills
• when I am healed
• when I have so many people in my church. No,

NOW is the day of salvation. God accepts you NOW. You have everything you need NOW. All spiritual blessings and resulting natural blessings are yours NOW. Start living by faith NOW.

4. DON’T LET YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE DICTATE WHO YOU ARE. . .

Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (2 Corinthians 6:3-10, KJV).

You may praise me, or you may run me out of town. I may experience difficulities, or the going may be smooth as ice.

But no matter what, I am the same person. God’s opinion of me has not changed.

• I’m a new creature.
• I’m a child of God
• I’m an overcomer
• I am of God
• Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the World.

5. LET GOD’S LOVE DOMINATE YOUR LIFE

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. (2 Corinthians 6:11-13, KJV).

Paul’s heart was open and big toward the church. He encouraged them likewise to have a big heart. Sometimes we have walls built up that do not allow God’s love to flow out.

“I’m not going to love you, because you might reject me. I’m going to hold something back because I don’t want my love trampled upon.”

However, when we love with God’s love, we’re not putting ourself on the line. If we are rejected, he is rejected. We are secure in knowing that we are flowing in God’s love. What you do with God’s love is up to you. If you reject me, you reject him. . . It’s your choice, but I’m not going to let God’s love be dammed up because of your reaction.

The whole earth shall be fill. . ..

The fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

Rooted and grounded in love

Filled with the fullness of God.

ILLUSTRATION: David Wilkerson tells Nicki Cruz. If you cut me up in little pieces, each little piece is going to love you.

6. WATCH YOUR ASSOCIATIONS

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (2 Corinthians 6:14-17, KJV).

God does not want you to come completely out of the world. You are needed here in the ministry of reconciliation. However, if you fellowship (share in common) in the sin of the world, your life will be polluted and your witness destroyed. You ARE different. Those things hold now pleasure anymore. You are a new creature. You can’t act like an old creature any more.

7. WALK IN YOUR FAMILY PRIVILEGES

And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:18, KJV).

• He is a Father to you. . .
• You’re in the right family.
• You have royal blood.
• You have special privileges

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17, KJV).

Don’t demean the dignity of the family name. Understand that you are part of a holy nation, a royal priesthood. You have the name of Jesus and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

CONCLUSION

Perhaps you have not found your place in Him. Maybe you’ve been playing around the edges of the Kingdom of God. You have received the seed of the Gospel, but it has not yet birthed Christ within you. . . You have not surrendered to the will of God and received Jesus as Lord. Let Him have His way today!