“A New Creature”

II Corinthians 5:12-17

12) For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

13) For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

14) For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15) And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

16) Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

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

I

n that we speak English (of a sort), one would think (in that the Bible is written in English) that we would find the Bible to be clear. The truth is that so much of it confuses us because of the fact that our very first teaching as children attempts to teach us how to do things. This is exactly the opposite of what the Bible teaches.

The principle of the teaching of the Lord is that the honest man will acknowledge that he gets no closer to the Lord through reading, alone. Therefore, He has constructed the Bible to require that its “mysteries” remain mysteries apart from total submission to Him.

The “creature” that is the human being does not operate according to faith, but rather, according to his understanding. The “handicap” in this is that our “understanding” is determined by our sensory perception. Being based (as it is) in the physical realm, it is powerless to give us any spiritual understanding. There is no way around the truth that what is “spiritual” is not made sense of, but rather, operated in by faith!

Amongst many other handicaps under which we operate is that as a “natural man,” we are born with no capacity to receive anything but that which is natural. After all of these years, we now know that much of the problem with the Church is that its “occupants” took in the spiritual information given to them by and about God and attempted to “process” it while still in the same “form.” That which is natural can never know or be spiritual. Therefore, obviously one in this state would have to undergo change.

There is no lack of “help” programs for Man and his various “ailments” and “difficulties.” However, once the “improvement” attempt has either succeeded or failed, one is still a “natural man”—improved or not! In contrast, God's plan is designed not to produce “better” human beings, but to produce spiritual beings, capable of worshipping Him “in Spirit and in truth.”

Jesus was sent to us to help us that we might not have to pay for our own sin. For this to be possible, we must be redeemed from the life and circumstances that produced the sin in the first place! Now, once one is free of this, obviously he cannot afford to remain anywhere near the “influences” that “polluted” him. This is precisely the reason that we are “raised in the 'newness' of life.” So, what is “newness?” It is a “change of operation” after salvation, which, in general, means that life must not be lived as before.

Before salvation, the “creature” that we were was “constrained” by nothing! Now, we are instructed that it is the love of Christ that “constrains” us. Often, this is incorrectly read and understood. You see, many think that this says that God's love will constrain us; while we are really being told that it is our love of God that will be what controls us! If we love Him, we will not sin against Him!

There will be no “newness” springing up from what is already in existence without the “death” of the preexistent. Often, we look for what is objectionable in others to “die,” but do not consider the same for ourselves. If we are to “.. .know ...no man after. the flesh,” then it is we who will need to be “overhauled” and not, necessarily, them. It is our responsibility to walk in our “newness” and “spirituality” by assessing our situations with a spiritual, rather than fleshly “eye.”

For too long, rather than producing what is fit for the kingdom of God, the Church has been producing “nightmares”—of the caliber of the Frankenstein model. Whether we knew it or not, salvation has always called for the complete annihilation of the (fleshly) soul that comes to it. Having allowed hideous, “half-dead” creatures to claim rights to the kingdom, we have done the Lord a grave injustice. Now, we are being called upon to correct the situation, that the mere “walking dead” might become the “living dead.”