The New Creature

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17.

You have seen one trial of an interest in Christ, in our last discourse, by the indwelling of the Spirit. We have here another from one of the greatest effects of the Spirit upon our souls, namely, his work of new creation: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” The apostle’s scope in the context is to dissuade Christians from a sinful partiality in respect to men; that they should not regard them after the manner of the world, according to external differences, but according to their real internal worth and excellence. This he presses by two arguments: one drawn from the end of Christ’s death, which was to take off our minds from those selfish designs by which the world is swayed; the other drawn from the new spirit by’ which believers are actuated. They that are in Christ are to judge and measure all things by a new rule: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away;” as if he had said, We have done with the low, selfish spirit of the world, which was wholly governed by carnal interest; we are now to judge by a new rule, to be actuated from a new principle, aim at a new and more noble end: ‘‘ Behold, all things are become new.”

1. We have here the great question to be determined, whether a man be in Christ — a question upon the determination of which we must stand or fall for ever. By being in Christ the apostle does not mean the general profession of Christianity, which gives a man the reputation of an interest in him; but an interest in him by vital union i =

with his person and participation of his benefits. This is the question to be determined, than which nothing can be more solemn and important.

2. We have the rule by which this great question may be determined, namely, the new creation: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” By this rule all claims to an interest in Christ are to be examined. Jf any man, be he high or low, learned or illiterate, young or old, if he pretend interest in Christ, this is the standard by which he must be tried: if he be in Christ he is a new creature; and if he be not a new creature, he is not in Christ, let his endowments, confidence, and reputation be what they will. A new creature — not physically, he is the same person he was — but renewed by yzracious principles imparted from above, which sway him and guide him in another manner and to another end than ever he acted before; and these gracious principles not being educed out of any thing preéxistent in man, but imparted from above, are called ‘“‘a new creature.” This is the rule by which our claim to Christ must be determined.

3. This rule is here more particularly erplained. ‘“Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” He satisfies not himself to express it in general terms, by telling us the man in Christ must be a new creature; but more particularly, he shows us what this new creature is: ‘‘Old things are passed away — all things are become new.”

By old things he means all those principles and lusts belonging to the carnal state, or the old man: all these are passed away — not perfectly, but in part at present, and wholly in hope and expectation hereafter.

“All things are become new.” He means not that the old faculties of the soul are abolished, and new ones created in their room; but as our bodies may be said to be new bodies by reason of the endowments to be bestowed upon them in their resurrection, so our souls are now renewed by the imparting of new principles to them in the work of regeneration.

These two parts, the passing away of old things and the renewing of all things, comprise the whole of sanctification, which in other scriptures is expressed by equivalent phrases: sometimes by putting off the old and putting on the new man, Eph, 4:24; sometimes by dying unto sin, and living unto righteousness, Rom. 6:11, which is the same thing the apostle here intends by the passing away of old things and making all things new. And because this is the most excellent and glorious work of the Spirit wrought upon man in this world, the apostle asserts it with a note of special remark and observation, ‘Behold!” — behold and admire this surprising, marvellous change which God has made upon men; they are come out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. 2:9, out of the old, as it were, into a new world. “Behold, all things are become new.” Hence,

God’s creating of a new supernatwral work of grace in the soul of any man, rs wnfallble evidence of a saving interest in Jesus Christ.

Suitable hereto are those words of the apostle, ‘ But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and-have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Hph. 4: 20-24. Where we have, in other words of the same import, the very selfsame description of the man that is in Christ which the apostle gives us in this text. It will be necessary to show why the regenerating work of the Spirit is called a new creation; in what respect every soul that is in Christ is renewed or made a new creature; what are the remarkable properties of this new creature; the necessity of this new creation to all that are in Christ; how this new creation evidences our interest in Christ; and then apply the whole.

I. Wny THE REGENERATING WORK OF THE SPIRIT IS CALLED A NEw creation. And the reason of this appellation is the analogy which is found between the work of regeneration and God’s work in the first creation.

1. The same almighty Awthor who created the world creates this work of grace in the soul of man. ‘‘God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of. God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4: 6. The same powerful word which created the natural, creates also the spiritual light. It is as absmd for any man to say, I make myself to repent or believe, as it is to say, I made myself to exist.

2. The first thing that God created in the natural world was light, Gen. 1:3; and the first thing which God ereates in the new creation is the light of spiritual knowledge. “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Col. 300.;

3. Creation is out of nothing. It requires no preéxistent matter; it does not bring one thing out of another, but something out of nothing; it gives a being to that which before had no being. So it is also in the new creation. ‘Who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9,10. The work of grace is not educed out of the power and principles of nature, but is a pure work of creation. The heathen philosophers could neither understand nor acknowledge the creation of the world, because it was repugnant to the maxim, out of nothing nothing can be made. ‘Thus did they mistake through their reasonings; and after the same manner some great pretenders to reason among us declare it an absurdity to affirm that the work of grace is not virtually contained in nature.

4. The efficacy of the Spirit of God gave the world its being by creation, Gen. 1:2; the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; it hovered over chaos as the wings of a bird over her eggs, as the same word is rendered, Deut. 32:11, imparting to the rude mass a quickening influence. So in the new creation a quickening influence must come from the Spirit of God. ‘So is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3: 6.

5. The word of God was the instrument of the first creation. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:6,9. The word of God is also the instrument of the new creation in man. ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” 1 Peter, 1:23. So James 1:18, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.” Of his own will, that was the impulsive cause; with the word of truth, that was the instrumental cause. Great respect and honor, love and delight is due to the word upon this account, that it is the instrument of our regeneration or new creation

6. Zhe same power which created the world stall swpports it in being; the world owes its preservation as well as its existence to the power of God. So it is with the new creation, which entirely depends upon the preserving power which first formed it. ‘Preserved in Jesus Christ” Jude 1. ‘“Who are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.” 1 Peter 1:5. As we live, move, and have our being in God, Acts 17: 28, so in a spiritual sense we continue believing and delighting in God, without whose continued influence upon our souls we could do neither.

1. God surveyed the creation with complacence; he beheld the works of his hands, and approved them as very good. Gen. 1: 31. So also in the second creation; nothing pleases God more than the work of grace in his people. It is not an outward privilege of nature or gift of Providence which commends any man to God; circumcision is nothing, and uncircumeision is nothing, but a new. creature. Gal. 6:15.

II. We inquire, Iv wHat RESPECTS every soul that is in Christ is renewed, or made a new creature?

1. He is renewed in his state, for he passes from death to life in his justification. 1 John 3:14. He was condemned by the law; he is now justified freely by grace, through the redemption which is in Chrict: he was under the curse of the first covenant; he is now under the blessing of the new: he was afar off, but is now made nigh unto God: once a stranger, now of the household of God. Eph. 2:12, 13. O blessed change from a sad to a happy condition! ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8: 1.

2. Every man in Christ is renewed in his affecteons; all the affections of his soul are renewed by regeneration: his understanding was dark, but now is light in the Lord, Eph. 5:8; his conscience was dead, or full of guilt and horror, but is now become tender, watchful, and full of peace, Heb. 9: 14; his will was rebellious and inflexible, but is now obedient to the will of God, Psalm 110:3; his desires once pursued vanities, now they are set upon God, Isaiah 26:8; his love doted upon earthly subjects, now it is swallowed up in the infinite excellencies of God and Christ, Psalm 119:97; his joy was once in trifles, now his rejoicing is in Christ Jesus, Phil. 3:3; his fears once were about worldly things, now Ged is the object of his reverence, Acts 9: 31, and sin the object of his dread, 2 Cor. 7:11; his expectations were only from this world, but now are from that to come. Heb. 6:19. Thus the soul in its faculties and affections is renewed, and the members and senses of the body must be employed by it in new services; no more to be the weapons of unrighteousness, but instruments of service to Jesus Christ. Rom. 6; 19.

3. The man in Christ is renewed in his practice. The regenerate not being what they were, cannot act as they once did. ‘“‘ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world.” Eph. 2:1, 2, 3. They were carried away, like water by the strength of the tide, by the influence of their corrupt natures and the customs of the world; but the case is now altered. So the apostle shows believers their old companions in sin, and tells them, ‘Such were some -of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,” 1 Cor. 6:11; as though he had said, The world is now altered with you, thanks be to the grace of God for it. This wonderful change of practice, which is so remarkable in all the regenerate, and immediately consequent upon their conversion, sets the world wondering at them. ‘‘ Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.” 1 Peter 4:4. They “think it strange.” The original word signifies to stand and gaze as the hen does which has hatched partridge eggs, when she sees the chickens she has brought forth fly away from her. Thus do the men of the world stand amazed to see their old companions in sin, whose language was earthly, it may be profane, now praying, speaking of God, heaven, and things spiritual, having no more to do with them except by way of admonition: this amazes the world, and makes them look with admiration upon the people of God.

Ill. We are to inquire into THE prorerties of this new creature. O how little do we know of the nature and operations of this new creature. But so far as God has revealed it to our weak understandings, we may

speak of it.
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1. The Scripture speaks of it as a thing of great difficulty to be conceived by man. “The wind. bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3: 8. The origin of winds is a great difficulty in philosophy. We hear the voice of the wind, feel its force, and see its effects; but neither know whence it comes or whither it goes. Ask a man, Do you hear the wind blow? Yes. Do you feel it blow? Yes, very sensibly. Do you see the effects of it, rending and overturning the trees? Yes, very plainly. But can you describe its nature, or declare its original? No; that is a mystery which Ido not understand. Just so it is with him that is born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God, of whose nature and operations we understand but little, comes from heaven, quickens and. influences our souls, and mortifies our lusts by his almighty power. These effects of the Spirit in us we experimentally feel; but how the Spirit of God first entered into and quickened our souls, we understand little more than how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child. Eccles. 11:5. Therefore is the life of the. new creature called a hidden life. Col. 3:3, Its nature is not only hidden from carnal men, but is in a very great measure unknown to spiritual men, though themselves are the subjects of it.

2. But though this life be a great mystery, yet, so far as it is known to us, the new creature is the most beautiful and lovely that ever God made; for the beauty of the Lord himself is upon it. The new man is created after God. Eph. 4:24. As the picture is drawn after the man, so this is God himself delineated by the Spirit upon the soul of man. Holiness is the beauty and glory of God; and in holiness the new creature is created after God’s own image. Col.3:10. The regenerate soul hereby becomes holy, 1 John 3:3; not essentially holy, as God is, nor yet efficiently holy, for the regenerate soul can neither make itself nor others holy. But the life of the new creature resembles the life of God in this, that as God lives to himself, so the new creature lives to God; as God loves holiness, so does the new creature; it is in these things formed after the image of God that created it. When God newly creates the soul of man, we are said to be “partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Pet.1:4. So that nothing can be communicated to men which so beautifies and adorns the soul as this new creation. Men do not resemble God as they are noble and rich, but as they are holy. An awful majesty sits upon the brow of the new creature, commanding men to do homage to it. Mark 6:20. Yea, such is the beauty of the new creature, that Christ, its author, is also its admirer. Song 4:2.

3. This new creature is created in man, upon the highest design that ever any work of God was wrought — salvation to the soul. When we receive the end of our faith, we receive the salvation of our soul: as death is the end of sin, so eternal life is the end of grace. The new creature, by the steady direction of its nature, takes its course as directly to God and to heaven, the place of its full enjoyment, as the rivers do to the ocean; it shows itself made for God by its workings after him; and as salvation is the end of the new creature, so it is the design of him that created it. ‘‘ Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing, is God.” 2 or. 5:5. By this workmanship of his upon our souls he is now preparing and making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Col. 1:12.

4. This new creation is the most necessary work that God ever wrought upon the soul of man: the eternal well-being of his soul depends upon it; and without it no man shall see God. Heb. 12:14; and John 1: 3, 5. Except ye be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom of God. Can you be saved without Christ? You know you cannot. Can you have interest in Christ without the new creature? My text expressly tells you it can never be; for, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” O reader, with whatever slight thoughts of this matter, and with however careless an eye thou readest these lines, yet know, thou must either be a new creature or be miserable for ever. If civility could save thee, why are not the heathen saved? If strictness of life could save thee, why did it not save the scribes and Pharisees? If a high profession of religion can save thee, why did it not save Judas, Hymeneus, and Philetus also? Nothing is more evident than this, that no repentance, obedience, self-denial, prayers, tears, reformations, or ordinances, without the new creation, avail any thing to the salvation of thy soul. The blood of Christ himself, without the new creature, never d.d and never will save auy man. Oh how necessary a work is the new creation! Circumcision avails nothing, and uncircumcision nothing, but a new creature.

5. The new creature is a wonderful creature. There are many wonders in the first creation: ‘“‘The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all men that have pleasure therein.” Psalm 111; 2.. But there are no wonders in nature like those in grace. Is it not the greatest wonder ever seen in the world, except the incarnation of the Son of God, to see the nature of man changed as it is by grace? to see lascivious Corinthians and idolatrous Ephesians become heavenly Christians? to see a cruel persecutor become a glorious confessor for Christ? Gal. 1: 23; to see the mind of man, lately set in a strong bent to the world, taken from its lusts, and set on things spiritual and heavenly? Certainly it was not a greater display of divine power to see Lazarus come out of his sepulchre, than to see the carnal mind embrace Jesus Christ; it was not a greater wonder to see the dry bones in the valley move and come together, than it is to see a dead soul moving to Christ in the way of faith.

6. The new creature is immortal, and shall never see death. Grace is, in the soul of man, a well of water Springing up unto eternal life. John 4:14. The new creature has a beginning and succession; and therefore might also have an end, as to any thing in its own nature. fixperience also shows us that it is capable both of increasing and decreasing, and may be brought nigh unto death. Rev. 3:2. The work of the Spirit in believers may be ready to die; but its perpetuity flows out of God’s covenant and promises, which make it immortal. When all other excellencies in man go away, as at death they will, Job 4: 21, this remains: our gifts, our friends, our estates may leave us, but our graces will never die; they ascend with the soul into glory when death separates it from the body.

1. The new creature is heavenly. It is not born of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God, John 1:18; its origin is heavenly, it is spirit born of Spirit, John 3:6; its centre is heaven, and thither are all its tendencies, Psalm 63:8; the food on which it lives are heavenly things, Psalm 4: 6, 7; the object of all its delight is in heaven, ‘‘Whom have I in heaven but thee?” Psalm 73:25. The expectations of the new creature are all from heaven; it looks for little in this world, but waits for the coming of the Lord. ‘The life of the new creature upon earth is a life of patient waiting for Christ; his desires and longings are after heaven. Phil. 1: 23. The flesh indeed lingers, but the new creature hastens, and would fain be gone. 2 Cor. 5:2. It is not at home while here; it came from heaven, and cannot find rest until it comes there again.

8. The new creature is active. No sooner is it born but it is acting. ‘‘ Behold, he prayeth.” Acts 9:10. <Activity is its very nature. ‘If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Gal. 5:25. Nor is it to be wondered at that it should be always active, seeing activity in obedience was the end for which it was created. ‘‘ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” Eph. 2:10; and he that acts in religion from this principle of the new nature, will delight to do the will of God, and find the sweetest pleasure in the paths of duty.

9. The new creature is thriving; growing from strength to strength, 1 Pet. 2: 2, and changing from glory to glory: 2 Cor. 3:18. The vigorous and constant striving of this new creature is to attain its just perfection and maturity. Phil. 8:11. It can endure no limits short of perfection; every degree of strength it attains but sharpens its desires after higher degrees. Upon this account it greatly delights in the ordinances of God, the duties of religion, and the society of the saints, as they are helps in its great design.

10. The new creature is wonderfully preserved. There are many wonders of providence in the preservation of our natural lives, but none like those whereby the life of the new creature is preserved. There are times of temptation and desertion in which it is ready to die, Rev. 3:2; the degrees of its strength and liveliness are sometimes sadly abated and its comfortable workings intermitted, Rev. 2:4; the evidences of its being in us may be and often are darkened, 2 Pet. 1:9; and the soul may draw sad conclusions about the issue, concluding its life not only to be hazarded, but quite extinguished, Psalm 51: 10-12, but though it be only to die, God wonderfully preserves it from death: it has its reviving as well as its fainting seasons.

IV. We will demonstrate THe NEcESsrry oF THIS NEW creation to all that are in Christ, and by him expect to attain salvation.

1. From the express will of God revealed in Scripture. Search the Scriptures, and you shall find God has laid the whole stress of your eternal happiness by Jesus Christ upon this work of the Spirit in your soul.. So our Saviour told Nicodemus: “Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5. Agreeable whereunto are those words of the apostle, ‘‘ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Heb. 12:14. And though some may think that birthright privileges, ordinances, and the profession of religion may commend them to God’s acceptance without this new creation, he shows them how ungrounded are all such hopes. ‘For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Gal.6:15. Christ and heaven are the gifts of God; he is at liberty to bestow them upon what terms he please; and this is the way, the only way, in which he will bring men by Christ unto glory:

2. This new creation is the first part of the great salva-. tion we expect through Christ, and therefore without this all expectations of salvation must vanish. Salvation and renovation are inseparably connected. Our glory in heaven, if we rightly understand its nature, consists in two things — — our assimilation to God, and our fruition of him; and both these begin with our renovation in this, world. Here we begin to be changed into his image, 2 Cor. 3:18, for the new man is created after God. In the work of grace, God is said to begin that good work which is to be finished in the day of Christ. Phil. 1:6. Nothing can be more irrational than to imagine that the design or work should be finished which never had a beginning

3. So necessary is the new creation to all that expect salvation by Christ, that without ut heaven would be no heaven, by reason of the unsuitableness of our carnal minds thereto. ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God,” Rom. 8:7, and enmity excludes all complacency and delight. There is a necessity of a suitable frame of heart towards God in order to the complacent rest of our souls in him, and this temper is wrought by our new creation. “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.”

2 Cor. 5:5. Renovation, you see, is the moulding of a man’s spirit into an agreeable temper, or making us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Col. 1:12.

From all which it follows, that since there can be no complacency in God without conformity to him, as is plain from 1 John 3: 2, and from the nature of the thing itself, either God must become like us, which it would be blasphemy to imagine, or we must be madevagreeable to God, which is what I am proving the necessity of.

4, There is an absolute necessity of this change to all that expect interest in Christ, since all the marks and signs of such an interest belong to the new creature. Look over all the signs of interest in Christ or salvation by him dispersed through the Scriptures, and yeu will still find. purity of heart, Matt. 5:8; holiness both in principle and practice, Heb. 12: 14; mortification of sin, Rom. 8: 13; longing for Christ’s appearance, 2 ‘Tim. 4: 8, with multitudes more of the same nature, constantly made the marks of our salvation by Christ. So that either we must have a new Bible or a new heart; for if these Scriptures be the true and faithful words of God, no unrenewed ‘creature can see his face.

VY. The last thing to be considered is, How THE NEW CREATION IS AN INFALLIBLE PROOF Of the soul’s interest in Christ.

1. Where all the graces of the Spirit are, interest in Christ must be certain; and where the new creature is, there are all the saving graces of the Spirit; for what is the new creature but the union of all special saving graces? If is not this or that particular grace, as faith, or hope, or love to God, which constitutes the new creature, for these are’ but as so many branches of it; but the new creature comprehends all the graces of the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Gal. 5: 22,28. Any one of the graces of the Spirit gives proof of our interest in Christ; how much more, then, the new creature, which is the union of all the graces?

2. Where all the causes of an interest in Christ and all the effects of such an interest appear, there undoubtedly a real interest in Christ is found. But in the new creature you find the cause, the electing love of God, from which the new creature is inseparable, 1 Pet. 1: 2, as it is from interest in Christ and union with him. Eph. 2:10; 1:4-6. And you also find the effects of an interest in Christ in the new creature. There are all the fruits of obedience, for we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, Eph. 2:10; Rom.7:4. There is opposition to sin, “He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” 1 John 5:18. There is love to the people of God, ‘“‘Every one that loveth is born of God.” 1.John4:7. There is a conscientious respect to the duties of both tables, for the new creature is created after God in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. 4: 24. There is perseverance in the ways of God and victory over all temptations, “for whosoever is born of God overcometh the world.” 1 John 5:4.