Finding a Fresh Start

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 (ESV)

¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; ¹⁵ and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

[W]hat we see is that anyone united with the Messiah
gets a fresh start, is created new.
The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!
(2 Corinthians 5:17, Message)

1. The fresh start we need is more than changing we live, we  have, or we look.

2. The fresh start we need is made possible by the and of Jesus.
   . . . Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:24b-25, ESV)

3. The fresh start we find by Jesus includes . . .

1. of our sins.In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
(Ephesians 1:7, ESV)

. . . the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
(1 John 1:7, ESV)

2. The of God’s Spirit.

• We are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8)
• We are “sealed” by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)
• We are to be repeatedly “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18)

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
(Galatians 5:25, ESV)

3. The of eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16, ESV)

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;
(John 3:36a, ESV)

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39, ESV)

Fresh Start Stories

• A man who was religious, but seeking (John 3)
• A woman looking for love in all the wrong places (John 4)
• A young man who landed in a place of brokenness (Luke 15)
• A woman tormented by the demons in her life (Luke 8:2)
• A man who crumbled when the pressure was on (John 18, 21)