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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Beloved, the text for this morning comes from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the epistle reading. You may be seated. Paul said, what we are is known to God. Well, if what we are is known to God, what are we? And Paul summarized the very last verse of that text and said, Therefore, which is the great English way of saying, everything that I said beforehand, remember that? Here’s the point: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.
That’s implying that you, as a wild branch, have been grafted into the vine, Jesus Christ, the living vine. You are now in Christ. That’s implying that you yourself, your person, having been baptized into Christ, have been given, well, quite frankly, have been given a death sentence. Because as you read this text, he talks about you’re to die to yourself daily, and you are to live daily for Christ. It’s kind of a paradoxical statement that in order to live, you’ve got to die.
Right? Now we know that for a fact because we’ve got to physically die in order to physically live eternally in heaven. All the more, you are to die spiritually daily to live spiritually eternally in heaven. In fact, as we look at this text, we’re going to find out that our life in Christ is a daily being in labor pains. I know it’s Father’s Day. We’re not talking about moms, but that’s the one aspect that we men do not have to experience: labor pains.
And the idea behind it is that that’s your and my life daily. It’s not like it’s a moment and it’s over. It is our life in Christ to be daily in labor pains until we’re finally delivered into the eternity of heaven. So get out the text or your Bible, whichever you’d like to look at, but we’re going to be following it pretty closely.
In the first five verses of the Epistle reading of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he uses the term tent as opposed to the heavenly dwelling. Now, obviously, tent implies perishable, mortal, temporary. And heavenly dwelling implies eternal, stands forever kind of stuff. And he says in the first verse, we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, being perishable and mortal, is destroyed, it’s okay. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
That’s your Christian hope. And only you who have been baptized into Christ have that hope. The unbeliever does not. The unbeliever has hopes based on a whole bunch of other things, but they’re not based on the revelation of Jesus Christ given to you by the Holy Spirit through His Word.
But Paul says something about this tent, and he says it twice. He says it in verse 2, and if you look again, he says it in verse 4. In this tent, we groan. That’s the daily labor pains. Why do we groan? Because this is not our home. Our home is awaiting us. This life of groaning because we’re in constant labor pains is not our designed existence. Our designed existence from the beginning has been bliss.
But we groan in this tent because, as we’re going to see in just a moment, we are dying to ourselves daily. Anytime you tell a little kid, “no,” they can’t do that, they will throw a tantrum. The only difference between a kid that throws a tantrum outwardly and an adult is that the adult has learned to refine their tantrums, and they keep them inside, and they smile while all the while their insides are fuming.
So we still get to throw tantrums, just not outwardly. And you know it because God has called you to see your life through His eyes, and you and I realize, I don’t want to have to be giving up stuff. I don’t know if I’m going to have enough stuff. I don’t like to think about these things. And yet that’s what God is pushing you daily to do: to die to yourself and live for Him. That’s why we groan. Daily we groan. Because we have to come to terms with ourselves.
We know what our self is like at our darkest, and we’re ashamed of it. But I’m also telling you to be ashamed of your self at your best because it still stinks to high heaven to God. This is Paul talking, the Jew of all Jews, the one who was every bit obedient to the ceremonial law. This is not like a Mary Magdalene, whom we’re going to look at in a month or so when we celebrate her. Totally different person. So no matter at your worst or at your best, you have to deny yourself.
That’s the new will that’s been born in you if you are in Christ. That’s why in verse 4, while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened. Burdened by yourself. Seeing yourself through God’s eyes, His law, and seeing that it is not pretty. It’s childish—not childlike. It’s childish. Immature. Unloving. Self-centered. It is all those things that we wish we could completely cover with the polyglycote of our actions and hiddenness.
But notice, he says in verse 5, He who has prepared for us this very thing, meaning having death swallowed up by life, the very last part of verse 4, he who prepared for us this being made alive from death is God who gave us His Holy Spirit at your baptism as a guarantee. That’s your status in Christ. Paul is trying to make it very clear. Here is your identity in Christ.
That’s why in verse 17, that’s the summary statement of the previous 16 verses. So the first five are saying, you know what Paul says later on in 17, here’s why he said what he said in 17, being a new creature in Christ or a new creation in Christ, because all of these things are true. But your life in Christ… Your life as Christ is not a victorious life like some Christians want to talk about.
Because that implies always on top of things. Your stuff don’t stink and your hymns are always hymned perfectly. There are no frayed edges. Why would Paul write groaning? And not just once, but twice. So then when in verses 6-8, he talks about the antithesis to groaning, and he uses two times a phrase called, we are of good courage.
Notice that Paul says, he doesn’t say, we don’t groan anymore, does he? He doesn’t say that. In fact, what he’s implying is in the midst of your groaning, dealing with yourself, God gives you the courage to live as God’s child. Even though you’re being accused by yourself, and even though Satan is picking the scab of your failures, and this world is calling you all kinds of things, in the midst of that groaning, you are of good courage.
That’s the Christian life. And in fact, you don’t even have to say you are of good courage. You can also translate that and say, we are courageous. Now that sounds so noble. That’s why Paul doesn’t deny the groaning. In the midst of groaning, you’re courageous. That’s what it looks like.
Paul goes on. We are of good courage. Why? Because we know that while we are at home in the body, verse 6, we are away from the Lord. And in the absolute wonderful statement, that short verse 7, we walk by faith, not by sight. That’s why Paul can say, we groan, but we’re courageous. Yes. You walk by faith, not by sight. You don’t see the good things that you do. It’s a good thing you don’t.
You and I would become puffed up and pompous like a big old toad. We do not see it. That’s why the sheep are dumbfounded on judgment day. They go, when did we visit you, Lord? When did we clothe you, O Lord? When did we give you food and water? Who are the ones in this world that walk by sight? The goats. They are all about what they did.
And if you remember what is said in that last part of that parable, when did we not see you and feed you? When did we not see you and clothe you? When did we not see you and visit you? And care for you and so forth? What a paradoxical life we’ve been given in Christ. He goes on.
We are of good courage, verse 8, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Well, absolutely. But it’s not our time yet. And whenever it is time, it’s the right time. Whether that time is two years old, or whether that time is 102 years old, it’s the right time when God wants to call you home.
It’s not right that death is how. That is the attitude of Satan. That is the punishment of our sin. Death is the reality we all must face whether we die at two or 102. But God’s timing is when we die, not ours. He goes on.
So whether we’re at home or away, here’s our mission in Christ. We make it our aim to please Him. This is Father’s Day. If you had a good relationship with your daddy, there wasn’t much more that you could ask for than to see your daddy smile and be pleased with you. And if you had a decent relationship with your father, there’s probably not much more that could crush you than to see your father’s face and countenance disappointed in you.
Well, I got good news for you today. Your Heavenly Father will never, ever look upon you with disappointment because He only looked upon one with disappointment, and that was His Son, Jesus Christ. He looks upon you only with great pride and joy. So if we make it our aim to please Him, isn’t that kind of self-defeating because He’s already pleased because of Jesus? The answer is yes.
So if he is already pleased with Jesus, are you going to do anything that’s going to displease him as you seek to do His will and not yours? No. Will you ever do His will perfectly? No. There’s always room for repentance, which means there’s always more room for forgiveness. But that’s our role in life, to please God, to make our Father happy. He’s happy when we receive His gifts, and having received His gifts… We groan, but we’re of good courage.
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one would receive by what is done in the body or whether good or evil. We confess this in the Athanasian Creed, remember? It kind of stuck in your craw possibly. It’s right out of the Bible. And this is not only the New Testament place; it’s tons of places in the Psalms.
But don’t think otherwise than what the Bible has already told you. Do you get to heaven because of what you’ve done? No! This is the sheep and the goats all over again. Are you aware of what you’ve done? Well, the very things that I am aware of, possibly what I’ve done, I can always think in terms of, but I didn’t do it with a happy heart always, and I didn’t do it as well as I could have.
Precisely! You get to heaven because of the one who did do it perfectly, did do it precisely, and with joy did He yield Himself to the Father’s will, embracing His being cursed by the Father on the cross for you so that you never have God’s disappointment in His face or countenance ever looked upon you. Sin does not cling to you, but sin sure as shooting mats clings to the goats and to the unbelievers.
It’s what takes them down and drowns them. Yours has been removed as far as the east is from the west. Yours has been cast into the depths of the seas. Yours is not clinging to you, but clings to the one who died with them. That’s why you can stand before that judgment seat and be judged righteous. Why? You were judged first and foremost and final at your baptism. That’s the judgment. Believe it.
That’s why faith believes God’s judgment. Not what you tell yourself and not what others tell you about yourself, but what Christ declares to you. In your baptism, He declares to you, you are His new creation. Do you believe it or not? Well, of course you believe it. That’s your hope. But the unbeliever doesn’t have hope in that. His hope is in all kinds of uncertain things in this world that will always leave him vacuous, empty, and unquenched.
Verse 11, there’s the therefore again. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, that phrase, fear of the Lord, implies a relational fear. If a gunman came in to point a gun at you, you would fear the gunman. But that fear is not a relational fear. You have no relationship with that gunman.
This kind of fear is a relational fear. It’s like the fear of a child towards his father: the child who receives the spanking for back-talking to the father. The son goes back to the same father who swatted his rear and caused him to cry when he, that is the little boy, scratches his knee and is bleeding. In his pain, he goes back to the same man who punished him for comfort. That’s a relational fear.
That’s what you have with your God. You trust His mercy, and you respect His might. Because you have that relational fear, your job and my job, our mission, is to persuade others, but not by your sales-like abilities. You persuade them by serving them in love and in truth. You persuade them by serving them in love and in truth.
That’s why he said what we are is known to God and what we are is in Christ Jesus. That’s what we are. Jumping down to verse 14. For the love of Christ controls us. This is the confusing part of the English language when you have “of.” The love of Christ: is it our love for Christ or is it Christ’s love for us? For you English majors, it’s a genitive. What is it?
And in this case, it is not our love for Christ; it is Christ’s love for us. That’s what Paul means by the love of Christ. Because of Christ’s love for us, that is what controls us. That’s what has given you a new desire to please your Father. That’s what’s given you a new will to please the One who created and redeemed you.
That’s what’s given you the ability to say… I need to stand firm on this, or the ability to say, I need to do that. Because, Paul says, we’ve concluded by faith, not by sight, but by faith, that one has died for all; therefore, all have died. And if all have died, they’ve died so that, verse 15, we might no longer live for ourselves, but for Him.
That’s the point. That’s why we groan, because it’s challenging to take away from ourselves and live for God. Because living for God means that we have to take a lot of abuse by this world. And living for God means that we have to struggle with our tantrums and our selfishness and self-centeredness and our not fully loving of other people.
In fact, we’re very good about judging the outward appearance of other people rather than judging how Jesus sees them. He sees them all as relational, doesn’t He? We choose not to see them as such, but He does. That’s why we are convinced if one died, He died for all that we don’t live for ourselves.
So consider, you are in Christ. You are a new creation. You’ve been born again. You’ve been grafted into the vine. You’ve been clothed with Christ. That’s your identity. So when Paul says the old has passed away, he’s saying, that’s why you groan. Because when the old passes away, it hurts to die.
It’s painful to have cancer. It’s difficult to struggle with health issues. It hurts to die. If it hurts to die physically, you know by golly it hurts to die spiritually daily inside of yourself. That’s the groaning. But as he said earlier, we are of good courage. The new has come. That’s the new will and the new desire that says, but I want to please my daddy.
I want to please my daddy in being a faithful child. Not a perfect child, a faithful child. That’s why you are of good courage, because you are His child. Amen. You’re not illegitimate. You’re not floating around. And even if you had a horrible relationship with your father, you know what a good one is. And you got it in spades with your Lord and with your God.
In fact, the mark of those who feed on His flesh and drink His blood, the mark of those is to love and serve those whom Christ wants us to love and serve. Not our will, but His will be done.
In the name of Jesus who has made you His new creation, giving you a new will. Amen.
We rise. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
