What does First B Jackson teach about new creation?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on new creation starts with identity, not behavior. In a message built around 2 Corinthians 5:17 and several parallel passages, Amy pressed on a question most believers quietly avoid: do we actually believe what God says about who we are, or do we keep speaking our old nature back over ourselves? She described the habit many Christians have of calling themselves "just sinners" even after coming to faith, and she argued that this is not humility. Drawing on a footnote in the Amplified Bible connected to Moses' repeated protests in Exodus, she made the case that when God has appointed someone and that person keeps insisting they cannot be what God says they are, it is actually a form of pride dressed up as humility, because it claims to know something God does not.
The theological grounding she laid out was straightforward. The old self has been crucified. A genuine new birth has taken place. The sinful nature has been dealt with. These are not goals to work toward; they are declared realities for anyone who is in Christ. Amy connected this to a word she said the Lord gave her personally, that she could not go further in her walk with Him until she agreed with what He said about her. She had a blind spot right at the point of her own identity, even while her whole passion was to align with heaven.
The practical weight of the teaching landed in a simple image: imagine Jesus walking up and speaking words of identity directly to you. Amy observed that most people would either be moved to tears or immediately start countering it with a list of their failures. That countering impulse, she said, is the problem. What God has declared true of a person in Christ does not wait for that person to feel it or perform their way into it. The kingdom a person believes they carry within them is what they reproduce around them, and so what a believer actually believes about their own identity in Christ shapes everything that follows.
Taught from 2 Corinthians 5:17 · Galatians 2:20 · Ephesians 2:4-6 · John 3:6-7 · Exodus 3:9-11
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 6:17
17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- February 10, 2015 Living As a New Creation - Who do You say that I am (Wk. 1) (3) A sermon on discovering your true identity in Christ, exploring what God says about who you are and how believing it changes the way you live.
Mentioned along the way
- October 4, 2015 Today Is the Day Pastor Ray walks through 2 Corinthians 5-6, showing that Christ reconciles people to God through the cross, and that today is the day to respond.
- October 4, 2015 Now Is the Day of Salvation A pastor weaves memories of a feared grammar teacher and Jonathan Edwards into Paul's call in 2 Corinthians 5 and 6: today is the day of salvation.
- September 27, 2015 The Love of Christ Compels Us Paul's words in 2 Corinthians push us to see people through God's eyes, not our own, and to let Christ's love compel us toward the one message that changes everything.
- July 12, 2015 Far Be It From Me to Boast Pastor Ray closes out Galatians, covering stewardship, the authenticated gospel, and why Paul boasts only in the cross of Christ, not in law or human effort.