Fruit of Saving Religion

Revisiting a Familiar and Blessed Text

0:01 And the text that I want to consider with you is one that I've preached on once or twice in my nine years of ministry. And yet I want to turn to it again with no apologies because the word of God is fresh and new light has come to me in this text. Or I have seen new light in the text. And one of the advices an old sage gave to young preachers was don't be afraid to stay with the familiar and with those texts that God has blessed in the history of the church.

Context: Paul's Confidence and Motivation

0:35 Now the text is found in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. The context of this well-known text is Paul's description of his own experience as a Christian. He is speaking on the word of God. On the one hand of his confidence and expectation that when he's ushered out of this life into the life to come, he shall be ushered into the very presence of God.

1:06 He says in verse 6 to be absent from the body. When we are present here in the body, we're absent from the Lord. But if we're absent from the body, we are present with the Lord. And he says in the light of that, I have one ambition to be well-pleasing to my God.

1:22 Because I know I must stand. And before him, verse 10, then taking the suggestion of the thought of judgment, he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord in the light of the day of judgment, we're involved in seeking to persuade men of the truth of the gospel. And he says as we do so, there are times when as far as men are concerned, we're beside ourselves. They think we're crazy.

1:47 And he says that's all right in the light of the facts. Let them think that. Because I'm crazy in their eyes. Because of these great spiritual realities which mold and shape my life.

From Personal Experience to General Principle

2:00 Then as he moves from describing, or he then moves from describing his own experience into this great statement of verse 17, in which he makes his experience illustrative of a general principle that is true of everyone who is a true Christian. So he argues from his own experience as a believer to the general principle, to the principle true of all believers. And he says, Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things are passed away.

2:37 Behold, they are become new. You'll notice in your Bibles that the he is is in italics, indicating that those words are not in the original. You have a very, very unique structure of words. Most of them are in italics.

2:54 Most of the time, the Apostle Paul hangs one thought to another with connecting words. But here you have three abrupt statements. If any man is in Christ, a new creation, old things passed away, all things become new. And in giving us this statement, which is illustrated in his own experience, the Apostle then generalizes, and gives to us a description of what I'm calling saving religion.

Defining Saving Religion: What It Is and Do You Have It?

3:30 And so I want to title the message tonight, Saving Religion, What It Is, And Do You Have It? Saving Religion, What It Is, And Do You Have It? As we think our way through the text, consider first of all the essence of saving religion. If you boil it down to its irreducible elements, what is the thing that makes true Christianity, unique from everything else that's a substitute?

The Essence of Saving Religion: Union with Christ

3:59 It's this. If any man be in Christ, union with Christ is the essence of saving religion. What then is the effect of saving religion? A new creation.

The Effect of Saving Religion: A New Creation

4:14 Whenever anyone is found in Christ, the effect of that union will be a new creation. That's the effect of saving religion. What then will be the fruit of that union? The fruit of saving religion.

The Fruit of Saving Religion: Old Things Passed Away, All Things New

4:27 Well, he tells us, old things are passed away, all things are become new. That's the fruit of saving religion. And then someone asks the question, well, how in the world has all this come to pass? And in verse 18, in the first phrase, he gives us the root of saving religion, and all things are of God.

The Root of Saving Religion: All Things Are of God

4:51 So you have then, in this brief statement of the Apostle, a beautiful digest, a symmetrical description of the heart of saving religion. And I want to press upon your conscience tonight, saving religion, what it is, and then the question, do you have it? First of all then, the essence of saving religion. If any man be in Christ.

Pressing the Question: Do You Have Saving Religion?

5:22 This phrase, in Christ, as we've pointed out in our studies in Ephesians, is a key phrase in the New Testament doctrine of salvation. It occurs no fewer than some hundred, one hundred and fifty times in the New Testament. In Christ, in him, in whom, various shades of difference in the actual phraseology, but all of them pointing to this one pivotal doctrine that the essence of saving religion is nothing more, nothing less, than vital union with the Son of God as he has been manifested as the Christ. Now, it's not without significance that Paul says, if any man be in Christ. He doesn't say, if any man be in Jesus. He says, if any man be in Christ. In other words, our union has peculiar and distinct reference to the Son of God manifested as Christ, that is, God's anointed Messiah.

The Significance of 'In Christ' as Messiah

6:34 For the Greek word for Christ is the Old, is the New Testament counterpart of the Hebrew word for Messiah. He is Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the one appointed mediator, who has been constituted as a mediator in the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king. And therefore, the only Savior whom God sets before sinful men is not the man Jesus. The only mediator is the man Christ Jesus.

7:11 But as a mediator, God sets us before him as his Christ, as his anointed one. And in that office of the anointed one, he is prophet to teach us, he is priest to forgive us and to intercede for us, and he is king to rule over us. And therefore, bound up in that very word Christ is all that God has revealed about his Son as the pre-existent Word. John chapter 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

7:53 Everything revealed about him as the virgin...