Thinking, Acting, Living Like a Christian
Tom Shrader works through 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, arguing that genuine conversion produces a complete reversal of values — a new way of seeing people, the world, and oneself through the lens of Christ. He emphasizes that salvation is by grace through faith alone, not works, but that authentic faith will inevitably produce visible fruit and moral change. Drawing on the image of the Christian as an ambassador for Christ, Shrader calls believers to carry the ministry of reconciliation into the world by proclaiming the gospel clearly and living distinctively.
“If you say that you are a Christian, then there ought to be biblical life change, a reversal of your values. You're now driven by the love of Christ.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 2 Corinthians
Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 43 min
Themes: conversion, new creation, reconciliation, gospel, faith, transformation, ambassador, grace, questioning salvation, new believer, nominal christian, seeking assurance, young adult, feeling lost, doubting faith, spiritually complacent
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14, 2 Corinthians 5:16, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:18, 2 Corinthians 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:20, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 6, Ephesians 2:8-9, James 1:26-27, Matthew 6:33, 1 Corinthians 1:17
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation by grace, regeneration, new birth, sanctification, ministry of reconciliation, justification, fruit of faith
Full Transcript
Are You Truly Converted?
One of the things that has become obvious to me as I work through the balance of chapter 4 and chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians is that it would be wonderful to take four or five hours and go through this entire section in one sitting, but we obviously cannot do that. These thoughts are so closely linked together, and I am certain that I cannot do justice to what Paul has done here. So I ask you to work, to think, and to continue reading this passage, letting God begin to apply these truths to you through His Spirit.
When we left off last week, I ended by reading from Major Ian Thomas's appraisal of Saul's conversion. What that entailed was Saul looking at Jesus from an earthly perspective, and then all of a sudden conversion takes place, and now he sees Jesus totally differently. I want to revisit the last paragraph of that. Major Thomas wrote:
"So as I investigated and applied to him the normal standards by which any life is evaluated, I discovered that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, was not worth following. He was worth nothing. But on the Damascus Road, something happened there. In the blinding flash of a moment, I looked into the face of a man and saw God. I discovered that he who I thought to be worth nothing was the Lord of everything, that he was the God of glory, that everything that is made is upheld by the word of his power, that he is behind all things, and he is the very imprint and image of God. There I found that he who I thought to be nothing was everything, and I whom I thought to be everything was nothing."
That is how you begin to get an accurate view of yourself. You begin to see yourself as God sees you when you see Him for who He is. When you see that He is everything, your life comes into perspective. That is what happens in Isaiah 6. When Isaiah sees God, he immediately has a sense of who he is: "Woe to me, for I am undone."
Major Thomas continued: "In that moment, I came to a tremendous reversal of all the values of my life. Later, I learned that I who was nothing could be filled with him who was everything, and that would make my life something." What we are looking at here is true conversion.
The Test of True Conversion
So I would ask you: are you truly converted? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Perhaps you took communion today because for a long time you have operated under the illusion that you are a Christian — but are you truly a Christian? What does that mean? What does it look like? How does it play itself out?
We hear all the time from men and women who come to East Valley Bible Church, and they say, "I thought I was a Christian until I came to this church, and then I realized I didn't know Christ at all. I wasn't a Christian. I was living according to some caricature, some vision I had in my own mind, my own definition." My favorite of those stories is the man who, when I asked him if he was a Christian, stuttered and stammered for a moment and then said, "Not in the biblical sense." He was, by his own admission, an unbiblical Christian. But there is only one accurate definition. If you are not a Christian in the biblical sense, you are not a Christian at all.
This is very important. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you do not pass the doctrinal and moral test, then you have no biblical assurance of your salvation. The doctrinal test — do we understand what happened on the cross? — is what we will look at next week. But there is also a moral test. By that we mean that if I am truly converted, my life will change. There will be a reversal of all the values of my life. I will begin to think differently, act differently, and live differently. Everything begins to change.
Controlled by the Love of Christ
That is what we looked at last week in verse 14: it is the love of Christ that controls us. So when I ask whether you are truly a Christian, I ask you to test your own life today. Resist the temptation to evaluate the person to your left or right, or to think, "I wish Bob were here to hear this." We are talking about you. Are you controlled by the love of Christ? Does the love of Christ guide you, constrain you, regulate you, motivate you?
That is one of the evidences of life change — that you understand Christ died, and that in His death we died with Him, and He rose and we rise with Him. So the love of Christ controls me, and here is one of the ways I know it: I no longer live for myself, but I live for Him. All of a sudden there is a change of allegiance in your life. You are no longer number one. You are no longer concerned with building your own kingdom; you are concerned with building His kingdom. That is what Jesus said: "Seek first his kingdom, and these other things will be added unto you." Is that the way you live? That is the measure of a Christian.
Let me say it again. If you say you are a Christian and point back to a moment in time — perhaps a Billy Graham crusade, a summer camp, an FCA camp, or a conversation where someone shared the gospel and you prayed to ask Jesus into your life — but there has been no change since that point in time, then I want to suggest to you, based on what Scripture teaches, that you have no biblical assurance of your salvation. There must be a life change. There will inevitably be a reversal of all the values of your life. You are driven by the love of Christ. He constrains you, regulates you, motivates you, moves you. And the number one thing on your agenda is no longer yourself — every situation you encounter in the course of a day, the first question is no longer, "What about me?"
Seeing People and the World Differently
Verse 16 says, "Therefore, from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." Here is part of that tremendous reversal of values. We see Christ differently. We see people differently. That reading from Major Ian Thomas beautifully captured that idea. He said, when I was Saul and unconverted, I looked at Jesus this way, and I applied all the standards of society, and I saw that he was nothing. Now that I am converted, I see that he is everything.
Paul says, because I no longer live for myself, I see people differently. I see things around me differently. I evaluate people on a different set of criteria. I have a grid that is different. We know how the world thinks. If you have got enough money, or enough contacts, or enough power or prestige, you are in. That is what we value. Or if you have got the right credentials, or if you look right, or wear the right thing, or live in the right place, it is all based on man's standards.
Paul says we cannot look that way anymore. We do not look at people and make evaluations by that anymore. We even do that in the body of Christ. We can have a hundred people converted, but if one of them is an athlete, that is the one we want to run to the front. He says we do not think that way anymore. It does not matter to us that someone is one of the Phoenix 40 in the church. That is not the issue. That person is another sinner, saved by grace, trying to live the life that God has called him to under the constraints of the love of Christ.
A New Creature in Christ
Now, if all of that is true — and it is — there is another truth we find in verse 17. "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature." See how all these connect together. To be in Christ means that I believe Jesus is who He said He was. I believe that I am a sinner, separated from Him, and there is a chasm between me and Him, and there is nothing that can bridge that but Christ and Christ alone.
When I understand that, when I am in Christ, I understand that my sins are forgiven — past, present, and future. That is not an occasion to sin more. That is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving. I have a security, because it is all about Him and it is not about me. When I am in Christ, I am a new creature.
"The old things have passed away, and new things have come." Ray Stedman writes about what this means in this context. He says simply that there is always hope for everyone. No matter who it is, it is possible to be born again. No matter how violent a person is in opposition to the gospel, they can be changed. A creative God can reach the most hopeless, the darkest, the lowest, the worst, the farthest away. And when they are reached, you never need to give up hope for them again, because they are part of a new creation. God has started a work that He is going to finish.
Do you understand that there is no one beyond the reach of God's grasp? That no matter who you are, it is possible to be born again? Stedman also says that we oftentimes write people off. Let me speak autobiographically about that.
A Personal Story of Unlikely Conversion
I was not a Christian, and I reached a point in my life where one night I was sitting in a bar next to a man, and we were talking, and I was feeling particularly bad about my life and everything associated with it. I said to him, "I don't think I have any value. I don't have any worth." He said, dead serious — and this is a true story — "Tom, you have great value and great worth. You could always be used as a bad example." What I discovered was that all these men were going home, and their wives were saying they were awful, and they would say, "Well, I'm not as bad as Tom." That was the value I had, and I thought, well, at least that is something.
I was working in an office where there were men going to Larry Wright's Bible study. One day I went in and said to one of them, "Can I go to the study with you?" He stopped cold, thought for a minute, got an interesting look on his face, and said, "Well, it's for anyone." With the bar set that high, I was able to go to Larry Wright's study. It was there that God converted me, the very first Thursday that I was there.
A couple of weeks later, I asked him why he had never invited me, and he said, "It never occurred to me that you would be interested in anything like this." We are not very good at this. We are not very good at figuring out who God is going to save. We have a tendency to underestimate His saving grace and power. We think He specializes in taking those who are already close and moving them just over the edge. But that is not how He works very often, is it?
He takes the person who seems to have the least interest, the most unlikely candidate, and He ministers to that person, gives him a new heart, and causes him to be born again. If you are here today and you are saying you are hopeless, there is no way out, you are so far gone that God could never possibly reach you — that is a lie. All you have to do is come, and He will forgive you.
The Continuing Reality of New Life
We are a new creature, as verse 17 declares. The text in the original language indicates that this is a continuing fact. The believer's new spiritual perception of everything is a constant reality for him. He now lives for eternity. All of a sudden, we begin to see everything in the scope of eternity.
Now when we say that, our immediate instinct is to think of heaven and good things. I spoke with a man this week who was talking about his mother, who had died several years ago. Here is what he said: every day, without exception, I think —
Saved by Grace, Prepared for Good Works
Consider the eternal weight of what it means to lose someone without Christ. When we begin to see people as God sees them, we understand that the stakes are enormous. If you have not come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, when you die, you spend eternity in hell. Death crystallizes that reality for us every time.
Here is a simple test. Next time someone says, "I just came from a funeral," ask this question: "Was he a believer?" What you will hear so often is, "Well, I think so. There wasn't much fruit, wasn't much evidence, wasn't much proof. Didn't go to church, didn't read a Bible, didn't really like Jesus — but I think so." We do this all the time, and we need to understand the truth of what those stakes really are.
Now, we are new creatures — saved by grace and prepared for good works. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8–9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourself." Notice carefully what is not of yourself. Obviously grace is not of yourself, but the faith is not of yourself either. It is not as though God provided the grace and then you produced the faith on your own.
The grace and the faith are both gifts from God to you. When you say, "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," He is the one who gave you the power to do that. He is the one who opened you up. You did not generate that. You did not generate even a mustard seed of faith, because by nature we are alienated from God and at war with Him. But He moves.
Works Do Not Save — But Salvation Produces Works
Salvation is not a joint venture between Jesus and you. Some of us came from traditions that taught works, works, works — do this, do this, do this — with Jesus and His death on the cross somewhere in the background alongside a long list of requirements. But when we come to Christ in repentance and faith, we understand we are saved by grace through faith, and there is nothing we can do to earn it.
However, now that we are His — now that we are in His kingdom, now that we are one of His children, now that we have experienced that grace and that faith — our life begins to change. As Paul continues in Ephesians 2, we are "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" for good works. Our Christianity is not based on good works; it is based on grace and faith, a gift from God. But because you are a Christian, you start to act like one.
We hear it said all the time: "He's a good Christian — he does this, he does this, he does this." That is not what makes you a Christian. What makes you a Christian is grace and faith. The good works follow from that.
The Evidence of True Faith
James gives us some characteristics of genuine faith — not an all-encompassing list, but a meaningful one. He says that if anyone thinks he is religious and cannot bridle his tongue — literally cannot tighten the reins on it — he deceives his own heart, and his religion is worthless. The tongue is a reflection of what is in the heart. If your tongue is getting you into trouble everywhere, that is a reflection that your religion is of no value. This is the picture of someone who says, "I believe, I worship" — but there is no fruit.
James then describes what pure and undefiled religion looks like in the sight of God the Father: "to visit the orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep yourself unstained by the world." Reaching out in acts of sacrificial love to those at the very bottom of society — people who have no way to reciprocate — and keeping yourself distinct from the world. In your life, there ought to be evidence of your faith. There ought to be fruit.
And here is the thing about fruit — it just happens. In the front yard of the house we recently moved out of, we had two grapefruit trees that produced terrific fruit. People would come from all around the neighborhood to pick it and say it was the best grapefruit they had ever had. Every year, faithfully, around this time, there were those grapefruit. I walked by those trees many times in the quiet of the day, and I never once heard them straining or struggling to produce. It just happens. You water the tree, you put it in the right conditions, and if it is truly a grapefruit tree, you get great fruit.
If you take a Christian and place them in the world, and they are truly a Christian, you are going to see fruit. It will manifest itself differently for everyone, but there will be a heart for the poor, the hurting, and the broken. There will be a sense of keeping yourself from being defiled by the world.
In the World, But Not of It
When we talk about being unstained by the world, that does not mean withdrawing from it entirely. It does not mean creating some kind of Christian ghetto — surrounding yourself only with Christian music, Christian movies, Christian everything, to the point of absurdity. That is not what this is about. This is about a distinctive in your life that is undeniable. You are in the world, but you are not part of that world. You do not think like the world. You see it differently.
And all these things, as we will see in verse 18, are from God.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
The love of Christ controls us. We no longer think about ourselves first, and God begins to produce fruit in our lives. We are a new creature, and all of it is from God. Now look at what God did, because there is a passing of the baton here. They are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. God saves us, and then He commissions us. He sends us out into the world with a ministry of reconciliation.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17, "I didn't come to baptize, I came to proclaim the gospel." We go out into the world armed with this truth, declaring it to a lost world. We have a ministry of reconciliation. What is it? Verse 19: that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. How did that take place? He didn't count their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Here is the problem, and it doesn't always pop up on the radar screen. We have people who feel lost, estranged, and alienated, and they think their problem is either educational, economic, social, or political. Scripture says no — the alienation is none of those. The alienation is an alienation from God; we have been separated from Him by our sins. God moves, and God in Christ reconciles us to Himself. That is the word you take to the world, the message you carry out of here and into the world.
You have a ministry — a service — of reconciliation, and first and foremost that manifests itself in proclamation. Therefore — and here is another "therefore," drawing to a conclusion — we are ambassadors for Christ. We represent Him. As though God were entreating through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.
How are you reconciled to God? Not through good works, not through religion. God hates religion. I am not reconciled to God by trying to be a good person. I am not reconciled to God by visiting orphans and widows or keeping myself unstained by the world. I am reconciled to God by Christ and Christ alone. That is the point of reconciliation.
What It Means to Be an Ambassador
I am an ambassador. What does an ambassador do? I thought of at least five things an ambassador does as we use this word. First, ambassadors represent their nation — they speak and act in the name of the one who sent them. When you see the ambassador to the United Nations speak on behalf of whatever country he represents, he speaks for that country. You speak on behalf of the One you represent. You represent God, Christ, and the Spirit to this world, and you speak in Their name.
How do you do that? You speak the truth of this Word. You live in a world that is very confused — a world where we cannot agree on what is right or wrong, what is up or down, what is sideways. Even something as simple as pointing left becomes a trick question depending on which direction you are facing. You cannot get a straight answer to anything anymore. Where do you find truth? Where do you find direction? Where do you find true north? Right here.
As an ambassador, you must be a student of this Word. That is why the institute classes and all the other opportunities for study are so important. You need to know this Word in order to take this message to the world, and you can do it confidently because you can say, "Thus saith the Lord" — because this is what He says in His Word. To a confused world that thinks more possessions will bring happiness, you can say with certainty: that is not the problem. The problem is sin.
Second, an ambassador protects his nation's interests — political and economic. Here, we protect the truth. God's interest in this world, at least in this regard, is holding up His Word as truth. In a world that is deeply confused, even among churches that read at least part of this Bible in the course of a day, there is disagreement over what it means or whether it can be believed and taken literally. As ambassadors for Christ, we protect His interests in this world.
Third, ambassadors provide protection for the citizens who reside with them in that foreign land. In our case, those are the "one anothers" of Scripture. We care for one another, love one another, serve one another, forgive one another, pray for one another — all of the one anothers. The mission statement of East Valley Bible Church is to help one another learn God's truth and live biblically changed lives, to equip and encourage and prepare people for this world. We are in this together.
The Church as Our Primary Community
Those of us who are truly converted, truly Christians, are foreigners in this land. He placed us here together — not individually, but collectively, in the church. I am fine with parachurch ministries. I am fine with Young Life, FCA, Priority Living, and organizations like them. But those should not be our primary focus of time, energy, effort, and money. Our primary investment of resources ought to be in the church, where the one anothers begin to manifest and play out.
Fourth, an ambassador is supposed to behave in a way that brings praise and admiration to his nation rather than discrediting it. Jesus said it directly: you are the light and salt of this world. Let the people see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. They begin to praise Him as they see you. You are His ambassador here.
Fifth and finally, you are to live as a good citizen — but this is not home. This is the third or fourth week in a row we have talked about this. Our home is a place we have never been. As Christians, we should be homesick for a land we have never visited, for a place we have never occupied. We are ambassadors. If you say that you are a Christian, then there ought to be biblical life change — a reversal.
Living as a New Creature
Your values have changed. You are now driven by the love of Christ. You now think first and foremost not of yourself, but of others. You are concerned about His kingdom, not yours. You begin to see people differently, and you look at the world differently.
You look around and make estimations about people, their behaviors, and their worth based on God's value system, not our own. You are a new creature. New things come forward, and the old things are forgiven. You are an ambassador. You represent Him.
Do you live that way? When you walk out these doors and go into your neighborhood, into the office, into school, wherever it is, do you begin to see the world as God sees it and respond accordingly?
The Ministry of Reconciliation
Here is what He wants from you: to carry out the ministry of reconciliation. That is the gospel. And I don't think that means arguing with non-believers over all these profound biblical truths. I have people all the time who say, "I've got this friend who's not a Christian and he just doesn't get it." Well, obviously he doesn't get it. He can't get it. Unless the Spirit is working in his life, he is never going to get it.
Here is what you need to go and talk to him about. Not predestination and election. Not the whole concept of eternity and where souls were before. Do you understand you are a sinner, and do you understand God's provision through Christ? That is the message. Because until they understand that, the rest of these things will never be resolved.
Old earth, young earth — believers can figure out the earth and get it right. They can figure out predestination. But if someone doesn't know Christ, it doesn't matter. Yours is a ministry of reconciliation. So we go into the world obediently proclaiming the gospel in word and in deed.
The Evidence of Christian Life
If you are a Christian, you will think differently, you will act differently, you will live differently, and it should be evident to the people around you. Now we close exactly where we started. Are you a Christian? Do you have that biblical evidence? Can we see it? Is it measurable?
Because if you don't, then you have — listen closely — no biblical assurance of your salvation. If you are one of those people who came to Christ ten years ago and grew for a while and then in the last five years not much has happened, not much has changed, not much is going on, you better wonder what has happened.
When I say you are a Christian and you have to go all the way back to when you were five years old, sitting in a first-grade class where you asked Jesus into your heart, and that is the moment — and I ask you, when is the last time you saw God work? I asked a man once. I said, "When is the last time you saw God work in your life?" He said, "I'll tell you when it was. I was at Fashion Square four years ago at Christmas. The parking lot was jammed, and I didn't think there was any way in the world I'd get a parking spot, and I got a spot right by the front door." Well, if the last time you saw God work was four years ago getting you a parking spot, you have issues.
The Doctrinal and Moral Tests
Are you a Christian? We said there is a doctrinal test and a moral test. The moral test is that my life changes. The doctrinal test is there in verse 21. I want to spend the entire time on verse 21 next week, so take a look at it, read it, study it, and you will be prepared as we come to worship.
Closing Prayer
Father, help us see this truth. Maybe there are those here today who are unsure about this whole idea of their salvation and their faith. Maybe they are very convinced that they are Christians, but they are struggling with something in their life and would like someone to pray with them. God, bring them forward so that those at the front of the worship center after the service can talk with them, meet with them, and pray with them.
Father, thank You. Let us be faithful ambassadors who speak to a lost and dying world the truth of Your word, who protect Your interests here, who love and care for one another. God, let our life in no way discredit this message or this word. Let us bring glory to You through the way we live. We ask that in Christ's name, amen.