8                                       Nothing But The New Creature

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

Here we have God's Word telling us what it is like to experience salvation, and what hap­pens when we are truly in Christ. It is nothing else, nor anything more than our becoming a new creature!  And this cannot happen until, as this Scripture indi­cates, our old things have truly passed away. 

The apostate self-idolatrous nature of our “old man” must be put off, or there can be no new creature in Christ. Then that which is alive, wills, and works in you, will be the same as that which was alive in Christ, and now it is true that you are in Christ and are a member of His Church.

To everything but this new creature, Christ says, "I do not know you"; and to every virtue that worldly wisdom puts on, He says, "Get behind Me, Satan, for you savor not the things that are of God."

The Church of Jesus Christ has only one purpose, and that is to make us holy as He is holy, but nothing can do this, but that which has the full power to change a sinner into a saint, and he who has not received that power, may be assured that he is not yet  truly a member of the Church. Because the Church cannot bring forth any other births, but holy children of God; the Church has no other purpose, no other nature or work, but that of changing sinners into saints.

Creeds, religious notions, beautiful Church buildings, along with educated ministers,  singing, preaching, and praying, cannot convert dead sinners into living saints. For that which cannot help you to all goodness, cannot help you to any goodness, nor can any­thing take away even one little sin, but that which can take away all sin.

It is because of this very truth, you and I becoming a new creature that the apostle said, "Circumcision is nothing, and un-circumci­sion is nothing"; because all is nothing, as pertains to salvation, except a sinner being changed into a saint, or in the  apostle's words, being changed into a new creature. Therefore  nothing can truly be called a Church, or salva­tion, but that which has the power to take away all of your sins, thus making you a new creation in Christ Jesus!

The true forgiveness of sins is real and true, when that power of sin in us is made powerless; and nothing can do this, but that power by which we become sons of God. We know that a blind man doesn't have deliverance from his blind­ness, until he receives his sight. It is just as true that our sins have only been forgiven us, when we receive the power by which we become sons of God, or the new creature. Only then is our old man truly put off, and the new creature in Christ is raised up in his place. Here is another way of saying this, our sins are truly blotted out and done away with, when a birth of God that does not sin, has come to be the ruling life in us.

Why did our Lord say, that unless you eat My flesh, and drink My blood, you have no life in you? Did he mean, you have no earthly life in you? Why did the apostle say, “He that has the son of God has life, but he that has not the Son of God has not life?” Does he mean the life of this world? No, we truly are without Divine life in ourselves, there is only one Eternal life and that is the life of God, He and He alone is Eternal life! If we do not partake of this life, if we don't receive a birth of this life, we will remain as Adam was after his fall, naked and afraid of God.

This is why the apostle said in Gal 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

In order to have this new creature, this new life that is Eternal, we must be willing to part with our old life; we must truly deny ourselves in order that we can experience the new life of Christ. The apostle went so far as to say “Therefore we have been buried with Him through bap­tism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  You see, we must not only deny ourselves, we must be buried with Him (Jesus Christ).

Now perhaps you can see the importance of that which our Lord and Savior said in Matthew 16:24 When He said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny him­self, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”   

Nothing but a full birth, a continual breathing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the newborn crea­ture, can be a deliverance from all that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish in our fallen nature.

This is the whole labor of a preacher to the end of the world. He has nothing to preach to sinners, but the absolute necessity, the true way of being born again from above. If he doesn't do this one thing that is so necessary, but instead, starts disputing about words and doctrines, and teaches professing Christians to be zealously separated from one another, for the sake of being saved by different opinions of faith, works, justification, or election, etc., he has forgotten his errand, and has become a blind leader of the blind. For all that is called faith, works, justifica­tion, sanctification, or election are only different expressions of the restored Divine life, and what it does in us, it can have no existence anywhere, or in anything, but the new creature. When preachers do this oftentimes this is what happens, Ephesians 4:18. Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. This is what God wants us to do instead -

1 Timothy 6:12. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Yes, truly become a son of God and receive His power from on high! Only then will you become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

What Not To Do To Become This New Creature!

Don't try to work or earn your way into the Kingdom of God for this can't be done; salvation is never accomplished by any kind of works which we have done, because our works before we are sanctified are all born in selfishness. Remember, our works to attain salvation will never save us, or anyone else! Good works, are the fruit, and outcome of salvation, it is always the result of God’s work in us, Philippians 2:13. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And Ephesians 2:10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. The one thing for which we have been created anew is to start walking in good works, and only those good works which God prepared beforehand, and only after we have been sanctified!

As the eye, because it was created for the light, is most perfectly adapted for its work, as the vine-branch, because it was created to bear grapes, does its work so naturally, so are we who have been created in Christ Jesus for good works, and have been prepared for the works, and the works prepared for us.

The clear teachings of God's Word are especially important to understand, it is very true that we are not saved by our works, the counterpart, is also very true, we are saved so we can do good works, because God created us for them, and even prepared them for us. Let each of us seek to take in the deep Spiritual truth of this message, “Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has afore prepared” for each one of us, and which are waiting for us to take up and fulfill.  (Ephesians 2:10)

Many are the marks, which learned men have given us of the true Church; but be that as it may, no man, whether he is educated or not, can have any mark or proof of his own true Church-membership, but his being dead to all sin, and alive to all righteousness. This can't be more simply said, than in these words of our Lord, "He that commits sin, is the servant of sin"; but surely that servant of sin, can't at the same time be a living member of Christ's body, or the new creature who dwells in Christ, and Christ in him.

How easy is it to see, that the sincerity of our weak endeavors is quite a different thing from that, which alone is, and can be the required perfection of our lives. The first, God bears with. Not because He seeks, or requires it but he bears with them, because even though they are at a great distance from that perfection, or new creature, which God absolutely requires, which is the fullness of the stature of Christ, and is that which Paul says, is the one that obtains the prize. Now  when the Lord says "Strive," to enter in at the strait gate." Here He is requiring

our best efforts, and yet at the same time He also tells us, "That many shall strive to enter

 in, but shall not be able." Why is this so? It is because Christ Himself is the only door into life. Here the striver mentioned by Christ, and those which Paul calls runners in a race, are the very same persons; and Christ is calling Himself the one door or entrance, and this is the same as when Paul says, that only one receives the prize, and that one, which alone obtains the prize, or that enters in through the right door, is that new creature in whom Christ is truly born. And NO ONE ELSE!!!

The pleader for imperfection further supports himself by saying, no man in the world, Christ excepted, was ever without sin. And all by our  own experience must agree with this statement; and with the apostle I also add, "That if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar." But then it is as true to say, that we make Him a liar, if we deny the possibility of our ever being freed from a necessity of sinning. For that same portion of Scripture says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. "And in  1 John 3:9 (of that same epistle) he also says, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

But surely he that is left under a necessity of sinning as long as he lives, can't be said to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, any more than a man who must be a cripple to his dying day, can be said to be healed of all his lame­ness. How vainly does the Church pray for the baptized person, to have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph against the devil, the world, and the flesh, if this victorious triumph can never be obtained; if notwithstanding this bap­tism and prayer, he must continue to commit sin, and so be a servant of sin, as long as he lives?

The Devil's Greatest Victory!

This question about Christians continuing to sin after being converted and sanctified is very confusing to most believers today. Most believe that it is impossible to live righteously in this life. But, is that the teaching of the Bible? Let's look.

To start with, the Angel of God told Joseph, in Matthew 1:21. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." We are told by an Angel that Jesus was going to save HIS people from their sin! Now follow me through. In Matthew 5:48 we are told by Jesus Himself "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” This is very clear, we are not only to stop sinning (disobeying God) but we are to be perfect! Do you under­stand so far? Now let's look at Romans 6:12. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,” Here we have another direct command to not let sin rule in our lives!

Now let's look at what I call the “Killer Scriptures” They only kill the notion that God is not powerful enough to bring us out of a sinning life and into victory, in other words “"If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” In case you don't remember, Jesus said this! John 8:36

Killer Scriptures

Hebrews 6: 4-8. ”For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repen­tance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.                        You can see by this Scripture that God does not intend for us to go on in sin after being born from above!   Look again at another -

Hebrews 10:26. For if we go on sinning will­fully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Here we have the question answered of what happens if we continue to sin after receiving the Lord. It is to trample underfoot the Son of God! It is to insult the Spirit of grace.  Let's go on - 1 John 2:3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His command­ments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. Pray and ask God what all of this means. One last Scripture - The apostle John also said in 1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” I hope you prayerfully reread this little tract, becoming a new creation is truly the will  of God for your life!  "Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”