Audio Messages:
Pastor Wade Burleson

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Who Is This Christ of Christmas?
He Is Our Restorer
II Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Webster's dictionary defines restore as: "bringing back to an original state; to put back in a former position." I seriously considered not using the word restore because of the Mormon abuse of the word (i.e. "The Church of Restoration"). But it is impossible to examine the Christ of Christmas without acknowledging the power He brings to restore.

1. You and I lost our inherent beauty as people when our forefather rebelled.
   The beauty which we lost is not necessarily physical, but rather moral and spiritual. The sin of Adam, which is passed to all humans, has marred the soul of every man.
   1. We lost our ability to discern and value the important things in life.
      We revere the physical, the sensual, the temporal; not the spiritual and the eternal. We settle for the tempting apples of life, and lose sight of the soul's ultimate happiness.
   2. We lost the energy required to focus on other people rather than ourselves.
      Jeff Fan Vonderen says that before the fall relationships were 'grace-ful,' but after the fall they became 'curse-filled' relationships. The man determined to dominate and the woman determined to undermine. We lost necessary grace.
   3. We lost the source of our life sustaining power in a relationship with God.
      When Adam and Eve sinned, "They knew they were naked" (Genesis 3:7). Some believe that the Shekinah glory (God) departed from Adam and Eve.
2. Christ restores to us those things that we lost in Adam when we are in Him.
   To be in Christ, according to Paul's teaching to the Corinthians, means faith in Him.
   1. The old is gone . . . There's something quite interesting about the use of verb tenses in this verse. The first verb is 'gone' (KJV: "passed away"). It points back to a definite moment or event. In this case, it refers to the experience of the new birth. Everything that was associated with the old life -- "distinctions, prejudices, misconceptions, and enslavements of the former unregenerate way of life" -- is past!
   2. The new has come . . . A different tense is used for the words "become new." 'Has come' is in the perfect active indicative tense, which indicates that "the new comes, and continues to come." In other words, "God's new creation in you is not a newness that in course of time palls and grows old and outmoded, it is a newness that continues to become new" (New International Commentary on the New Testament, II Corinthians, Philip Hughes, p.203). As Robertson puts it, they "have become new to stay so." There is a freshness in the life of every believer.
3. This New Year presents to you an opportunity to start fresh in all areas of life.
   Probably the greatest privilege of the believer is the ability to change for the better.
   1. An eternal perception . . . God will point out to you what others cannot see.
   2. An external Power . . . "I pray that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened . . . his incomparably great power at work in us who believe." (Ephesians 1:18, 19).
   3. An enduring patience . . . "He who began a good work will complete it" (Philippians 1:6).