New Creation; New Creature

Concise Bible Dictionary:

See CREATION, THE NEW.

From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:

This refers to the new race of men that God is presently creating under Christ, “the last Adam” and “the second Man” (1 Cor. 15:45, 47). Since the first race of men under Adam has failed terribly (Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:23), God has purposed to make an altogether new race under Christ that will properly represent Him in this world and glorify Him in all things.
Scripture indicates that the Lord Jesus became the Head of this new race, when He rose from among the dead. It says that He is “the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead” (Col. 1:18b). That is, in rising from the dead, Christ was the "beginning" of a whole new order of manhood (Rev. 3:14). Hebrews 2:10 confirms this, stating that if God were going to bring "many sons" (a new race) to "glory" (a glorified condition), "the Captain [Author] of their salvation" (the Lord) would first have to be made "perfect." This, again, refers to Christ's resurrection and glorification (Luke 13:32; Heb. 5:9). Thus, He who was destined to be the Head of this new race had to be glorified first before there could be a glorified race under Him. “Glory” (the glorification of the spirit, soul, and body) is something that was not predicated of the old race under Adam, though God had said that that first order of man was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). This shows the superiority of this new race. Being the Head, Christ has the place of “Firstborn” (first in rank and position) in this race. This means that He is distinguished from the others in the race, having the “preeminence” in “all things” (Col. 1:18b). (See Firstborn and Headships of Christ.)
Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are thus sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13), are thereby made part of this new race through this connection. They have an inseparable link with Christ the Head, through the Spirit’s indwelling. This is indicated in Paul’s epistles by the expression—“in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15, etc.). On the very day in which the Lord rose from the dead, He connected the disciples with Himself in resurrection life by breathing into them, and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). This was a similar thing to what the Lord did with Adam in the first creation when He breathed into him “the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7), but now it was in connection with Him being the Head of the new race of men.
Being in this new race, Christians are referred to as Christ’s “brethren” (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11). Scripture says, “He (Christ) that sanctifieth and they (Christians) who are sanctified are all of one” (Heb. 2:11). This refers to those of this new creation race being of the same nature and kind as Christ Himself. “All of one” is not referring to the oneness of the body of Christ, nor is it speaking of the oneness in the family of God, but of our oneness of kind in the new creation. It is an expression that indicates that we are bound up together with Him as one lump, being of the same substance as He is. To indicate this, Scripture speaks of those in new creation as being “of Christ” (Gal. 3:29; 5:24 – J. N. Darby Trans.). Hence, being in this new race we are not only “in Christ” as to our position, but we are also “of Christ” as to our oneness of kind with Him.
An example of oneness of kind is when Adam’s wife was brought to him. He had seen the various creatures pass before him—each was “after his kind” (Gen. 1:21, 24-25). There was, however, none found among all of those creatures that were of his kind, and thus, all such were unsuited to him. But when God brought the woman to Adam, for the first time Adam saw one of his own kind. He said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Similarly, we are "one" with Christ in this new order of humanity. We are of one set and of one kind with Him, and thus, entirely suited to Him. Hence, Hebrews 2:11 goes on to say that Christ “is not ashamed to call them brethren.” If Adam had taken one of the other creatures for a wife, he would have been ashamed. But when God gave him the woman, which was someone of his kind, he was delighted. Similarly, Christ rejoices to introduce us as His brethren. He says, “Behold I and the children which God hath given Me” (Heb. 2:13).
It is noteworthy that while the Lord is not ashamed to have us identified with Him as His brethren, the Word of God never tells us to call Him “our Elder Brother,” or to use other such terms of familiarity. He has a glory of preeminence as the Head of the new creation that sets Him apart from all others in the race. It is a glory that He does not share (John 17:24). The Lord’s words to Mary indicate this special and distinguished place that belongs to Him alone. He said, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:17). Note: He did not say “our” Father and “our” God, but mentions Himself in relation to His Father and His God separately from that of believers. This shows that as a Man, He has preeminence in all things in the new creation race.
Furthermore, this new order of manhood does not have national distinctions, social distinctions, sex distinctions, etc., as does the first race under Adam (Gen. 1:27; 1 Cor. 11:3-14). The Apostle Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for all are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28; 6:15). Since this race is sexless, new persons are not added to it through procreation, but by a work of the Holy Spirit in new birth and salvation. Thus, each individual who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is a separate creation of God. All such are “created in Christ Jesus” as individual pieces of God’s “workmanship” (Eph. 2:10; 4:24; Col. 3:10), as Scripture says, “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). We are inclined to think that God ceased from His work of creating when He made the worlds and set man on the earth, but God is still creating today—in the sense in which we are speaking—by adding persons as individual creations to the new race under Christ.
Angels in the old creation were also created individually, but we mustn’t think that this new race is akin to angels. In fact, we are a superior order of created beings! This can be seen in the fact that when Christ rose from the dead and ascended into the heavens as a Man, He passed by the elevated place which angels are in, and took manhood to a place far above angels. When He entered the heavens as a Man, He sat down in a place “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:21). (Principalities and powers, etc. are angelic beings.) This means that not only is Christ in a place that is superior to angels, but that there is now a whole race of men under Him that is superior to those angelic beings as well! Men in this new creation race are now of the highest order of God’s creatures. We were once part of a race that was created “a little lower” than angels (Heb. 2:7), but now we are in a race that is not just one notch higher than angels—we are “far above” them!
As it was with Adam in the old creation, everything in the new creation race takes its character from the Head of the race. It has His imprint of “righteousness and holiness” on it (Eph. 4:24). Thus, we will not only be physically “like” Him (Phil. 3:21), but morally “like” Him too (1 John 3:2). As to moral likeness, Scripture says, “Having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness” (Eph. 4:24). And again, “Having put off the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new, renewed into full knowledge according to the image of Him that has created him; wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is everything, and in all” (Col. 3:9-11).
As men in this race (when glorified), we will be perfectly able to represent God in the world to come, because we have been renewed in knowledge after “the image of Him” that created us. (“Image,” in Scripture, always carries the thought of representation – Genesis 1:26; Luke 20:24.) This being the case, the Apostle goes on to say that we need to be exercised about putting on, in a practical sense, the moral features of the “new man” (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10)—which is Christ characteristically—so that we would exhibit the truth of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Our connection with Christ in the new creation is frequently confounded with our connection with Him as the members of His (mystical) body. However, these are two different relationships that we have with Him. The difference is this: as men in the new race we are “in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15) and “of Christ” (Gal. 3:29; 5:24 – J. N. Darby Trans.), whereas members of His body, we are united “to” Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 1:22; 4:15) and we are in “the Christ.” There may be some exceptions, but “the Christ” is a term in Paul’s epistles that denotes the mystical union of the Head and the members of His body as a unit (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 1:10; 3:4 – J. N. Darby Trans.). Also, new creation is an individual thing (2 Cor. 5:17 – “if any man...”); membership in the body of Christ is a collective thing—often referred to by Bible teachers as union. Hence, Scripture does not speak of the Church as being “in Christ,” but as men in the new creation race we are. Both are true of believers; they just denote different aspects of our connection with Christ. W. Scott said, “When membership in the body is predicated of any, it is not said they are ‘in Christ.’ We [as members of His body] are not in the Head. The union of the various parts and members of the human body is not in the head; united to the head they are, but not in it. ‘In Christ’ conveys a different order and character of truth from union to Him. United to Him is the body; in Him is the [new creation] race. Both, of course, are true of believers” (The Young Christian, vol. 5, p. 14).
The prospect that God has for this new race is to have all in it “glorified” with Christ (Rom. 8:17-18), and also to manifest them as “the sons of God” before the world in the millennial day to come (Rom. 8:18; 2 Thess. 1:10). Presently, we do not appear to be any different from other men (1 John 3:2), but this is because we are still in our bodies of humiliation (Phil. 3:21), which are part of the old creation order. However, “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49). That is, there is a day coming when we will be glorified like Christ—in spirit, soul, and body. This means that our bodies will have the capabilities that the Lord demonstrated in His body after He rose from the dead—passing through physical objects, travelling great distances in a moment of time, etc. (Luke 24:33-36; John 20:19). The fallen sin-nature in us will also be eradicated. Thus, we are presently in the process of a transfer from Adam to Christ which will not be complete until the Lord comes for us.