It would effectually deliver the mind from a thousand perplexities, could we only get a clear sense of what is meant by that one expression, “A new creation” It would, at once, serve to show us the utter fruitlessness of attempting to mend the world, or to mend the old Adam nature. No one who had really entered into the sublime and precious doctrine involved in a new creation, could ever speak of “making the best of both worlds.” We might just as well speak of making the best of “an old garment” and “a new piece.” The two things are wholly incompatible; and, hence, the “best” you can “make” of them is but to “make the rent worse.” Man, in his religious wisdom, his pious philosophy, thinks he can combine the two; but Christ declares that to attempt to combine them, is to make the rent worse. Christ did not come to mend the old world, but to die and find a grave in it, that, by dying and rising again, He might take us clean out of the old world into the new. To make use of Christ and His gospel for the purpose of mending the old world or the old Adam nature, is one of Satan’s most crafty and subtle devices. It is a fatal snare into which thousands are, at this moment, falling.
I would ask my reader to open his Bible, at the third chapter of Genesis, and ponder these words, “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (ver. 24.) Here we find the old Adam nature driven clean out of Paradise, and not only so, but “every way” of returning thither closed against him. Old Adam could never eat of the tree of life. Old Adam could not make the best of both worlds. He had lost one altogether, and he had neither title nor capacity for another. By sin he was ruined as belonging to the old creation, and naught save death and resurrection could introduce him into the new. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5) “In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” (Gal. 6) True Christianity presents “a new man” moving in “a new creation.” Spurious or false Christianity attempts to improve the old man and the old creation. In other words, it attempts to “put a new piece upon an old garment;” and, even though that “newpiece” be the profession of Christianity, yet do the words of Christ hold true, that “the rent is made worse.” Indeed, it will ever be found that, the newer or better the “piece,” the worse “the rent.” The worst “rent” that has ever yet been made is the result of tacking the name of Christ upon the old Adam nature. Satan’s masterpiece is to take up each “new piece” of divine revelation, and place it as a patch upon old Adam.
There is great power in the words, “turned every way.” There is no way in which the old nature can get life. It must die out of the old creation, and be quickened into the new. “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Gal. 6:1414But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14).) “Every way” is sedulously closed against fallen humanity. It must die. So the word of God declares. But the father of lies has, from the very outset, been seeking to set this simple truth aside. He knows what a potent instrument it is, and has therefore ever sought to hinder its action, by all means in his power. He is never better pleased than when he sees men, and particularly Christian men, digging and delving, in order to open a way for old Adam to get back to the tree of life. He has no objection to morality, to philanthropy, to religion. In a word, he will allow the very name of Christ to be tacked on to the old nature, in order to quash the grand truth of a “new creation.”
But it is all in vain. “The hand of God placed a flaming sword to turn a every way;” and the Holy Ghost, by the apostle, has set the sharp edge of His sword, for the same purpose, when He declares that, “Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” God’s “rule” for the old creation, and all pertaining thereto is, “death and resurrection.” Wherefore, it follows, that no work can be more fruitless than seeking to mend the world, or to mend the old nature. It cannot be done. The cross of Christ was not designed to mend the world or the flesh, but to crucify both the one and the other. When the Lord Jesus Christ lay in the silent tomb, there was an end of the old creation; and when He rose, it was as “the beginning, the first-begotten from among the dead”—the Head of the new creation.
Now, when Christ died, all the redeemed died with Him; when He was buried, all the redeemed were buried with Him; when He rose, all the redeemed rose with Him. Thus, it was in God’s view. The Head and members are one, and can never be separated. They belong to the new creation, in which “all things are of God.” There is not a single atom of the old Adam or his world, in the new creation, for if there were, it could not be said that “all things are of God.” It is not possible, therefore, to make the best of both worlds, seeing that, in the new world, there is not so much as a jot or tittle belonging—to the old; nor is there aught in the old world belonging to the new. The only question is, ‘Which shall we have?’ My reader is, at this moment, attached either to that world of which Satan is the god, or to that of which Christ is the Head. To make the best of the two is as impossible as to combine the sun’s meridian splendor with midnight’s gloom.
And, be it remembered, there is no middle ground. We cannot be half in the old creation, and half in the new. We must be wholly in the one or wholly in the other. If we are in the old creation, we have death and judgment before us. If we are in the new creation, we have death and judgment behind us. The old Adam must meet death and judgment. The flaming sword shuts him out from life, and shuts him up to death and judgment.
But my reader may feel disposed to ask, “How am I to pass out of the old creation into the new? “The answer is, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).) This is the way to pass into the new creation. It is done in a moment. Faith in God’s word connects the soul with Christ, and being connected with Christ, we are part and parcel of the new creation. A tree planted in Eden was part of the old creation; a soul planted in Christ, by faith, is part of the new.
This is very simple; and it is as precious as it is simple. There is not a single spot or stain of sin in the new creation. There is no wrath or judgment in the new creation. Satan’s arrows cannot reach us, nor his snares be laid, in the new creation. The grave is the boundary of Satan’s power; but the new creation begins at the other side of the grave. All our blessings, all our joys, all our dignities, all our privileges are in the new creation, and, therefore, lie far beyond the range of the enemy’s power. The Lord be praised for this blessed assurance! What full emancipation it gives from the things of earth and nature—from the old creation and all its belongings! Moreover, it gives such liberty and elevation, such holy fixedness and repose. To be able to say, “I belong to that new creation, wherein all things are of God,” is to know one’s entire deliverance from everything that could be against us. There is naught but absolute, divine, and eternal perfection in the new creation, and the very weakest believer is part and parcel thereof.
True it is, we are “Here in the body pent,” and “we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.” We bear about with us a body of sin and death, which is allied to the old creation, and must either crumble into dust, or be changed in a moment, at the coming of Christ; but this in no wise affects our position in the new creation. We may have to endure bodily pain, together with toil and conflict, in this wilderness world; but our standing is in the new creation. We are linked with One “who is the beginning” of all God’s ways in that new sphere in which we are called to “live, and move, and have our being.”
And, now, if it be asked, “What are the practical results of all this truth?” the apostle gives the answer; “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:1-31If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1‑3).) Here, then, is the practical result. We are to “seek,” and “ set our affection upon things above.” How much is involved in the expression, “things above!” It furnishes us with a very simple rule, by which to measure everything that may be presented to us. We have only to ask, “Does this thing range itself under the head of ‘ things above?” Does it belong to the new creation? If not, I shall not seek or set my affection upon it. The apostle does not say, “Seeing now, that ye are saved, endeavor to make the best of both worlds.” Ah! no; Paul had no such idea as this. To him the cross of Christ was the boundary of the old creation, and a risen Christ the beginning of the new.
Thus it should be with each true believer. There is no exception. “Ye are dead.” Here is the end of the old creation. “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Here is the beginning of the new. The rule is very simple where the heart is true to Christ; but, where the affection is set on “things on the earth,” a man will reason, and argue, and quote scripture in abundance, in defense of the most worldly practices and covetous designs. The Bible, alas! is often used to defend the practices of old Adam in the old world, and also to justify the Christian in his vain attempts to mend the old nature and the old creation. But, I repeat it, where the eye is single, the rule of “the new creation” is as simple as possible.
But some will say, “Must we not attend to our various callings?” Unquestionably. We have our new creation duties as well as our new creation privileges. The remainder of the Epistle to the Colossians sets forth the relationships and responsibilities connected with our new creation standing. Husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants are all recognized and instructed. We can discharge the functions belonging to these several positions in the fullest harmony with our new standing in a risen Christ. We have ample guidance for every relationship in which, as Christians, we stand; nor should we be found in any position for which the Holy Ghost has not furnished us with instructions as to our conduct. The fact of His not having mentioned this or that position should be quite enough to show us that He never intended us to be found therein.
May the Lord lead us to understand this sublime and practical truth of the new creation, and give us power, in the Spirit to walk as those who belong to that high and holy sphere of being.