On Our Being Made New – from January 18, 2026 (17/365)

Announcements

The LOVE thing is happening on Wednesday, January 21, 2025.

Let’s keep praying for each other for healing.

Introduction

Previously On The Aces…

We’ve talked about how we’re into 2026, and we’re excited to bear much fruit.

For clarification we’ve specified that worship is a sacrifice of praise – and worship is when we remember Christ and His sacrifice. Abel’s lamb was pleasant to the Lord, while Cain’s fruit was rejected. Worship happens when we focus on Christ’s work, and not our fruit.

We’ve also specified that the Vine produces the fruit, and we bear it. When we don’t bear any fruit, God, the Vinebearer, does not take us out but He lifts us up. Also, when we do bear much fruit, the Vinebearer cleanses us – He doesn’t necessarily prune us, but He does what he does with the intention of cleaning us. And why does He lift us up? Why does He clean us? So that we would bear even more fruit.

We determined that focus is critical. If we’re focused on ourselves, then we would come up with preaching from the story of Cain and Abel in the lines of, ‘make sure you offer the correct sacrifices’, or fixate on ‘there is praise that God rejects’

When we’re focused on ourselves, we’ll come up with messages saying that we’d BETTER make or even bear more fruit, or we’ll be taken out; Or we’d say something masochistic like, hey, when things are being taken out of our lives, then that means that we’re being pruned.

Hell, we’d even ‘prune’ ourselves, doing God’s job. I only remember that because someone once told me to break up with my then girlfriend – and that was it, no context, focus on myself, no glory to God.

When we look at these verses from the context of Christ and His finished work, and not focusing on our performance, our entire perspective is made new.

And I believe that’s one thing that we all need to realize as we go through this first month of January – If we’re to celebrate how we are able to bear much fruit, it cannot be avoided that we also remember how we’ve been made new creations… and this means everything about us has been made new.

All New, For All Time

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

Revelation 21:5

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

We know Christ as Alpha and Omega, First and the Last. But Christ is also the Beginning and the End. Christ is the fulfillment of prophecy, and the guarantee of things to come. He is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, the guarantee of John’s revelation, and the proof of Paul’s words to the Corinthians. He has made us new, He is making us new, and He will make things new. All things have become new. We have been made new creations.

It’s my prayer that all of us in the Body of Christ would receive some sort of vindication or validation from the rest of the world, if only for them to know that they’re on the right track. The best compliment I believe we can receive is for the world to tell us that they see Christ in us… and let us not be surprised if, coming with these compliments is the observation that we’re different from before.

Why, yes we are. Christ is in us, and we’ve been made new. We’ve been made new, and now Christ is alive in us.

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4

Not only have we been made new, but we walk in newness of life. What does ‘newness of life’ mean?

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.2 Corinthians 5:17

For purposes of this message, it means that the old is gone, and the new has come.

Newness of Life: The Old Has Gone. The Old Has Passed Away

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:5-14

Christ did not only die that we would have eternal life, but He also rose from the dead that we would have newness of life.

Through this passage this means that when we were made new, the old also had to be addressed, in that it was crucified with Christ at the cross, so that when He died, so the old has died. It’s not enough for us to say that we have been made new. That’s only half of this excellent deal! We also need to look back and see, the old sinful flesh has been crucified and died.

And I think it’s important for us to emphasize that the flesh has been crucified – I mean, it’s enough for us to know it’s dead and powerless and lifeless, but it’s also immobile. Motionless.

With this in mind, we take in the Truth of our newness through the rest of the passage. When we confess that Christ was crucified, died and rose again, we are also essentially saying that we have been freed from sin – no, we’ve died to sin. Therefore, sin no longer has dominion over us, and we have the option of not obeying its lusts.

While we are in this world we are constantly exposed to sin. But our desire to sin is gone, no matter how much we try to insist that it’s what we want.

We are still tempted, but we no longer have any obligation to obey sin. We will still stumble, sure, but the more we do the more we realize how the flesh is dead, and how dead we are to sin.

We used to practice sin, we used to enjoy sin. Some of that still remains, sure, but the more we sin and even try to willfully sin, the more we realize how it no longer feels like us.

I think it also helps for us to know something that Andrew Farley points out: That while sin does reign in this world, it comes from the outside. Sin used to be inside, and therefore natural for us to do.

When we confess Christ is our Savior, we are also saying that we are no longer instruments of unrighteousness of sin, but presented before God, alive from the dead, and instruments of righteousness to God.

Newness Of Life: We Are New Creations

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:1-6

We’ve been made new creations, and this means, primarily, that we’ve been:

Created in Christ Jesus for good works.
1. For holy works. What is holy? What is good?
  1. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.Philippians 4:8-9
  2. What points to Christ and His finished work.
Delivered to serve in newness of the Spirit.
1. No longer do we operate with the basis of the Law, but by the Spirit poured into our hearts. This is not to say that the Word is wrong, only that we see the Word in a new way – with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Married to Christ, who rose from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
1. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.Romans 6:22

We are new creations, with a new Partner, a new Master. Once, we were slaves to sin and the flesh, doomed to die from being separated from God.

Through Christ and His finished work, we can now boldly say that we are sons and daughters of the Most High, reconciled to God, much so that we are able to call Him our Father.

We have been reconciled to our Father, and we have been declared righteous unto eternal life.

Once, even our most glorious of works were as filthy rags before God… But now we are married to Christ, that we bear fruit to God.

Once we served in the oldness of the letter, and we always found ourselves falling short of the holy perfection of God – now, we serve in the newness of the Spirit.

The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18

Here’s where we testify of examples in our lives, when once we were like this, and now, because of Christ, we’re bearing fruit.

What really went down:

Recap done, segue into our being a New Creation – that is, we’re being made new, and we will be made new, and we have already be made new.

The old has passed away. Our desire for sin has died. The flesh is not only dead and powerless, but crucified and motionless.

The new has come. Philippians 4:8 as a guideline to what we’ve made new to. We no longer move according to Law (part of the Word) but we flow according to the Spirit (the living Word).

We are dead to sin, alive unto righteousness.

The old flesh is dead, we are alive; We have newness of life in the Spirit.

More emphasis on our new mindset next Sunday.

More emphasis on the fruit of the new creation.

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