Years ago, I was cleaning up and picking up some things around a building on our property. We had a bunch of scrap pieces of wood, newspaper, and cardboard scattered throughout it so we decided to throw it all into a barrel stove and burn it. Well, one time when I was walking by the stove and I tripped over something. And you know how when you trip and start to fall that you instinctively reach out in front of you to grab something to stop your fall? That is what I did, only the thing that I reached out to stop myself from falling happened to be the still-hot barrel stove.
Immediately I went and plunged my hand into cold water to ease the pain. About 10 minutes later, I had a huge blister covering most of my palm, as my body started to heal itself. About 7 to 10 days later, the blister broke, and the old dead skin from the burn blister fell off, revealing the brand new, pink skin underneath.
That is kind of what the verse we are studying today is about. Getting rid of the old sinner, and becoming new in Christ.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Here is another example:
The growing season in Minnesota is short and when the frost comes it will destroy any non-cold resistant plants, especially tomato plants. So sometimes some of the tomatoes that were left unpicked when the frost came fall off, and they will get buried under the dirt when I till the garden. They are “dead.” But every spring I will find new small tomato plants that sprout back up where they were the year before. The old plant was dead, and something new rose back up in it’s place.
That is what happens when someone becomes a Christian. When someone accepts Christ as their Savior and is baptized, the old person and the carnal deeds that goes along with it “dies”, and they are raised back up a new person in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit.
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:10.
We are dead in our sins. Without Christ’s love and forgiveness we would not be able to receive everlasting life in Heaven. But because of His love, we can now be filled with the Spirit, and live. He forgives us of all of our sins, and fills us with the Holy Spirit.
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Colossians 2:13
Just like when you have an old, broken down garage and you tear it down to the ground and get rid of it so that you can put a brand new one in its place, a person needs to tear down the old sinner that everyone without Christ is. We need to take our sinful past and get rid of it, so that we can build something new in its place. Through Christ we can become a new creature.
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts.” Galatians 5:24
Mortify the deeds of sin. Come to Christ and be baptized, and become a new person living for Christ. Tear down that old sinner, and be raised back up, new in Christ.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 