NEW CREATION

 THE APOSTLE PAUL WROTE IN 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here”.

The Gospel’s power to transform is the greatest hope-providing force in the universe. The death of Jesus launches us on a journey of becoming like Him–a journey that will culminate when we see Him face to face (See 1 John 3:1-3). As believers in Jesus we celebrate our life as ‘new creations’. Yet we must never lose sight of what that cost Christ. His death brought us life. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).   

The concept of a new creation (or regeneration or “born again experience”) is a constantly recurring one in the Bible. We’ll see it cropping up across the scriptures–it is ubiquitous, whether in the New Testament or Old Testament. I have chosen a few of them for our meditation. It all starts with Jesus of course:

Revelations 21:1, 4, 5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 …If there is anyone in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, new things have come.

The believer is created anew; his heart is not merely set right, but a new heart is given him. He is the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Though the same as a man, he is changed in his character and conduct–more than an outward reformation. God has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He died so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, might be justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. 

Ephesians 2:15 … by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace…

Through the person, sacrifice, and mediation of Christ, sinners are allowed to draw near to God as a Father, and are brought with acceptance into his presence, with their worship and services, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, as one with the Father and the Son. Christ purchased leave for us to come to God; and the Spirit gives a heart to come, and strength to come, and then grace to serve God acceptably.

Ephesians 4:22-23a  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds…

The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. By the new man, it is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.

Galatians 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 

BY CHRIST, OR BY THE CROSS of Christ, the world is crucified to the believer, and he to the world. The more we consider the sufferings of the Redeemer from the world, the less likely shall we be to love the world. To those who have truly believed in Christ Jesus, all things are counted as utterly worthless compared with him. There is a new creation; old things are passed away, and new views and dispositions are brought in under the regenerating influences of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus declares in John 3. 3  “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”-- unless he is a new creation, in other words.

According to Romans 6:4-6 believers are buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His life. See Revelations 21 also.

Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant, and seeks justification by his own obedience, he continues to be the slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from the law of sin and death. Believers are delivered from that power of the law, which condemns us for the sins committed by us. And we are delivered from that power of the law which stirs up and provokes the sin that dwells in them, and we become a new creation.

Among all the Old Testament revelations about new creation, there is nothing that compares to Ezekiel’s fantastic vision mentioned in the 37th chapter of the book that bears his name: 

Ezekiel 37:5, 6 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 

The vision was to encourage the desponding Jews; to predict both their restoration after the captivity, and also their recovery from their present and long-continued dispersion. It was also a clear intimation of the resurrection of the dead; and it represents the power and grace of God, in the conversion of the most hopeless sinners to Himself. 

Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Isaiah 43:18, 19 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 65.17, 18  Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy…

Let us look to Him who will at last open our graves, and bring us forth to judgment, that He may now deliver us from sin, and put his Spirit within us, and keep us by his power, through faith, unto salvation.

Father, thank you for what JESUS accomplished on the cross that I am a new creation. Let me never return the old things that need to pass away.

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