A NEW CREATION (part two)

By J.C. Metcalfe

Recapture from part one:

By means of the reconciling love of God moving out to us by way of the Cross, we are
born into a totally new life, and become new creatures – a new creation – in Christ Jesus.
As Peter says: We are ‘begotten… again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Describing the man who has thus become a new
creature Bishop Ellicott says: “The old things of his life, .. heathen philosophies, lower
aims, earthly standards – these things, in idea at least passed away from him at the time
when he was united with Christ. We may trace an echo of words of Isaiah’s that may have
floated in the apostle’s memory: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider
the things of old. Behold I make new things” (Isaiah 43:18-19). The words in bold Italics
are in the Septuagint the same as those Paul uses here.” (note from Esther: so, not
meaning an action of God and not repairing the old person, but meaning something
created by God, completely new. Not formerly existing)

E N D O F PA R T O N E

The Law of Harvest

The sixth chapter of Galatians is our next stopping place. The law of harvest is very
positively set out in verses 7 and 8, where a contrast is made between ‘sowing to the
flesh’, the old fallen life dominated by the material world, its claims and needs; and
‘sowing to the Spirit’, the author of life in Christ, the royal agent dispensing the treasures
of a new creation, which is the Kingdom of God. Suddenly in verse 12 Paul applies this
whole principle to religious activity. He says that there are those whose aim in religion is
dictated by a ‘desire to make a fair shew in the flesh’. Such men are rigidly insistent on
rites, ceremonies, and outward observances. They have no understanding of, but rather a
spirit of rebellion against, the Cross. They will not have a Cross which crucifies them.
J. Agar Beet comments here: ‘They wished to point in triumph to the visible mark of
proselyting success, as a tribute to their personal influence. ..” Such success would earn
for them the praise of men, and shelter them from the shame of the Cross. The apostle’s
answer to such an attitude is to insist on the finality of Christ’s death on Calvary, not
simply as the basis of God’s gracious acceptance and forgiveness extended to sinful man,
but rather as putting an end to all the old creation,. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges says:” In Chapter 5:6, the all-important thing is ‘faith working by love’; here ‘a
new creature’; in 1 Cor. 7:19, “the keeping of God’s commandments’. All these are
essential – the being circumcised or not is in itself a matter of indifference. Why?
Because the latter is an outward rite. It may be nothing more than that. But faith,
regeneration, obedience – these are spiritual – and they are everything.” Then speaking
of the term ‘a new creature’: “It is to be observed that the same word is used of the
calling into being of the material universe which is here (and elsewhere) used of the
change which is produced in the individual soul by the operation of the Holy Ghost, when
a man is brought out of a state of nature into a state of grace”.
We live in a day when the tide is flowing towards an outward adjustment of the externals
that divide professing Christians. Are we to have episcopacy, or some other form of
Church government? Can we produce some formula for bringing our rites and doctrines
into harmony? Ought we not to embark upon sweeping liturgical changes, so that the
Church is brought closer to the non-worshipping multitudes? These and many such
questions are being discussed almost endlessly today. The fact is, however, that God is
concerned only with His new creation; and the way He has elected to bring this into
operation is by declaring the old flesh-life – even though it is religious, and perhaps even
wears a “Christian’ suit – bankrupt, brought to an end in the Cross of Christ; then
bringing into being by the power of the Holy Spirit, and in union with the risen Christ,
something absolutely new deep in the hearts of men and women. This is the Christian
Gospel!

The Path of Good Works

We can now move on into the Epistle to the Ephesians. The first ten verses of chapter two
outline yet another phase of the complete separation made by God Himself between the
old and the new. Verses 1-3 describe with minute care the condition of fallen human
nature. There is little need to elaborate on the statements made here. It only needs a little
sincerity and humility for us freely to acknowledge the truth of the description as it
embraces us. It is this problem with which God grappled so triumphantly in Christ. The
Expositor’s Greek Testament deals with verses four and onwards in this way: “ The other
side of our case is now to be set forth – the Divine grace which meets the sinful,
condemned condition, and which stands over the dark background of our death by sin and
our subjection by nature to Divine wrath. God who is wroth with sin, is a God of grace.
His disposition towards those who are dead by trespasses and sins is one of mercy, and
this is no stinted mercy, but a mercy that is rich, exhaustless. … If mercy is God’s attitude
to sinful men, love is His motive in all that He does with them; and as mercy is “rich’ so
love is ‘great’.” What amazing reading these verses make! Think of all that God does for
and in His own! Quickened…raised up… seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! Here
is a sphere where human effort, and trust in religious observance, are alike ruled out. God
alone can accomplish such a miracle. The purpose? Verse ten provides us with the answer
to this question. To continue the comment made in The Expositor’s Greek Testament:
“God’s purpose in the place He gave to good works in His decree was that they should
actually and habitually be done by us. His final object was to make good works the very
element of our life, the domain in which our action should move. That this should be the
nature of our walk, is implied in our being His handiwork, made anew by Him in Christ:
that the good works, which from the Divine aim of our life shall be realized, is implied in
their being designed and made ready for us in God’s decree; and that they are of God’s
originating, and not of our own action and merit, is implied in the fact that we had
ourselves to be made a new creation in Christ with a view to the good works.”
This “path of good works’ is very clearly set out in Chapter 4 of this same Epistle. Verses
17-19 again outline the life and activity of the old nature. Then follows a summary of ‘the
truth … in Jesus’; to quote J.B. Phillips’ translation: “But you have learned nothing like
that from Christ (looking back to the old), if you have really heard His voice, and
understand the truth that He has taught you No, what you learned was to fling off the
dirty clothes of the old way of living, which were rotted through with lust’s illusions, and,
with yourselves mentally and spiritually re-made, to put on the clean fresh clothes of the
new life which was made by God’s design for righteousness and the holiness which is no
illusion”. Then follows a list of virtues, not of the type to bring glory to us, nor
necessarily to bring us into prominence in Christian work. Truth-telling, avoidance of
anger, scrupulous honesty, care in the choice and use of words, helpfulness to others, no
self-assertiveness, no talking behind the backs of others, kindness, understanding,
forgiveness, are seen as the evidences of the new life, which is in short God-likeness.
These constitute the glorious new creation in the inner life, whereby the chaos of fallen
human nature is banished from the scene, and the ordered creation of the new life in
Christ begins to be seen amongst men. “The Light produces in men quite the opposite of
sins like these – everything that is wholesome and good and true. Let your lives be living
proofs of the things which please God” (Ephesians 5:9-10 – J.B. Phillips’ own word
translation). The problem with our world is a moral one. God’s reply to it is the creation
of new men and women being conformed day by day into the likeness of His Son (see
Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:20-21, etc).

END OF PART TWO

For more articles like this, go to www.image-of-christ.blogspot.com