What Is the “New Creation”?
What Is the “New Creation”?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (II Corinthians 5:17,18)
Exactly what does the passage above mean? It is used today to signify that the individual believer has made a profession of faith in Christ?
But look at what it says:
"The new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here. All this is from God."
Of how many believers is this true?
There is another passage that might be saying much the same thing.
Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again (John 3:3)
It certainly is true that when a person has been born again the new creation has come. But when a person is first born again in Christ, it cannot be said that the old is gone, the new is here. Rather, there is a potential that one day the old truly will be gone and the new truly will be here.
Could you agree with that?
But where is this going? What will the finished product be like?
I believe that the statement in I Corinthians, the fifteenth chapter, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom, gives us a key to the new creation.
"Flesh and blood," as it is being used in this context, means the same as a descendant of Adam and Eve. A descendant of Adam and Eve cannot possibly inherit the Kingdom of God.
Why not? Because every descendant of Adam and Eve is an animal creation. He or she is a mammalian vertebrate, more intelligent than other animals. Also, they have a spirit that can converse with God, which is not true of any other class of animals.
In Heaven the deceased people are spirits, having a human form. But they are not flesh and blood. Flesh and blood creatures live on the earth, nowhere else to the best of my knowledge.
Because of the way we behave, we humans have taken what has been revealed to us of the things of Christ and have attempted to build houses for God, just as Peter did. We have created religions. Christianity is a religion. The true salvation that the Lord Jesus brought to us is not a religions, it is a transformation from a flesh and blood creature to a new creation in the image of God.
Needless to say, God is not a flesh and blood creature. Yet we are to be made in His image. All of the old is to pass away. There is to be a new creation that can enter the Kingdom of God.
The Apostle said, to those who were criticizing him for not obeying the customs of the statutes of Moses, "I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I am living. However, it is not I who am living but Christ who is living in me."
The old has been done away. Adam has been done away.
The new creation has come. The new creation is the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus filling every aspect of our personality. When this is true, we can say in truth that the old has passed away and the new has come.
I employ a simple technique to cause the new creation to permeate every element of my personality. Throughout the day and night I ask the Lord if I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, and if I am where I am supposed to be.
If the answer to either question is "No," I ask the Lord to fix it until I am where I am supposed to be and doing what I am supposed to be doing.
I understand that people say they cannot hear the Lord. Perhaps if they continue to do faithfully what I am suggesting, God will let them know when they are missing His mark for them.
I realize that people say, "Once I am in God's will I can continue to do what seems to be God's will and the best things to do.
I have not found this to be a good idea. Sometimes as we are going along the path we think is God's will, and look to the Lord, we discover that God was pointing out a new direction and we were not seeing it.
We know that Jesus often prayed when His disciples were sleeping. Jesus said, "I can do nothing of Myself, only what I see the Father doing."
Again, "The words I speak to you are not My own words. The Father who is living in Me is speaking the words you are hearing.
We understand, if we are a Christian, that Christ is living in us. Perhaps if we spent less time on other duties and pleasures, and gave attention to what God is saying to us, we would learn to think as Christ is thinking; to speak as Christ is speaking; to act as Christ is acting.
Perhaps there are not many people who are willing to abandon their own desires and plans so that Christ may live in them. To me it is a delight. What a relief it has been to turn away from my own thinking and planning and keep seeking and doing the will of Christ.
Flesh and blood can never enter the Kingdom of God. Only Christ can enter the Kingdom and is the Kingdom.
Only the new creation, which is Christ in us, can enter the Kingdom. He is the hope of future Glory.
If we are to attain to the promises to the overcomers we will have to lean to walk in the Spirit of God. We learn to do this by looking constantly to the Lord Jesus.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)
Each of us must consider ourselves crucified with Christ, and then seek to live in His resurrection Life. When we do, the requirement of the Law of Moses is fulfilled in us.
In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)
One important aspect of bringing forth the new creation, the new personality, is that of driving the sin and self-will from our adamic personality. The Holy will lead us to do this, and provide the wisdom and power so we make a success of this endeavor.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:12-14)
If we hope to be clothed with an incorruptible body when Jesus appears, which is part of the new creation, we must be seeking today to live by the resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
The new covenant is not a covenant of the letter but of the Spirit of God. In fact, the Spirit of God is the Law of the new covenant, replacing the Law of Moses.
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (II Corinthians 3:6)
The Book of Revelation provides some guidelines concerning the growth of the new creation in us.
The Lord Jesus promises the Church at Ephesus that if they will overcome the problems they were experiencing He would give them the right to eat from the Tree of Life. Eating continually from the Tree of Life, from the body and blood of Jesus, builds up the new creation in us.
But we must, through Christ, overcome the obstacles set before us if we are thus to grow in the new creation.
Jesus promises the Church at Smyrna that if they faithfully endured their tribulations to the point of death they would receive the crown of Divine Life. Again, building up the new creation.
These two rewards are given to us now if we lead a victorious life in Christ.
The Lord speaks sternly to the believers at Pergamum, warning them about sexual immorality. If they live in victory over this sin, they will be given some of the hidden manna (the body and blood of Christ). Also they will receive the white stone signifying they have passed from the ranks of the called to the ranks of the chosen.
This is a major step toward the new creation, and the manna and the white stone will be given to us now as we press forward in Christ.
Christ promises the Church at Thyatira that if they live in victory over sexual immorality and idolatry, in the future they will reign with Christ over the nations of the earth.
No flesh and blood human being will govern the nations with the Lord Jesus. The individual must be filled with the Divine Nature.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (II Peter 2:4)
The Lord Jesus tells the believers in Sardis that they are spiritually dead. They must wake up and live in victory in Christ.
The warning to these believers concerns membership in the Royal Priesthood. If they will serve Christ in victory, they will be clothed with the white robe of God's priests.
Christ speaks to the believers in Philadelphia to endure patiently, and warns them to guard their crown.
The promises to the victorious saints is that they will be pillars in the Temple of God. That the name of the Father will be written on them. That the name of the new Jerusalem will be written on them. Also that Jesus' new name will be written on them.
By and large, the believers in Laodicea are rebuked sternly by the Lord Jesus. But the promise to them is greater than any other it appears.
They are promised that if they open the door to the Lord, He will enter them and dine with them.
Then there is a reward so fantastic that one can scarcely grasp it. It is to sit with Christ and the Father on the great White Throne from which the nations and the angels are judged.
Finally, in Revelation 21:7, those who live in victory are designated as heirs of all God will make new in Christ. Also, and most marvelous of all other promises, they will be regarded as God's sons, He being their Father.
We have seen from the Book of Revelation some steps toward the new creation. These are available to all whom God has called to be part of His Church, His called-out people.
In our day the Thrones of Glory are waiting for occupants. Many who are last in time shall be of first rank in the Kingdom.
We must now waste our time on the media. A little bit of the affairs of the world are sufficient. We must give our attention to the development of the new creation in our personality.