New Creation Realities

“We have become partakers of Christ” (Hebrews 3:14).

One cannot make a study of the New Testament without experiencing something of the nature of a shock, in view of the glaring difference between the Christian life as we customarily live it and the ideal set forth by the Master.

We are to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6). We are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). We are to forgive as Jesus forgave — even as He, in the shame and anguish of the cross, looked down upon those who blasphemed while they murdered Him, and forgave (Colossians 3:13). We are to be aggressively kind toward those who hate us; yes, we are actually to pray for those who despitefully use us (Matthew 5:44). We are to be overcomers — more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). Enough! We dare go no further. It would only increase our shame and our pain. We stand indicted.

Why does not the Savior, so tender and so understanding, so loving and so wise, make requirements more in keeping with human nature? Why does He not demand of us what we might reasonably attain? He bids us soar, yet we have no wings. Is there a way out? Yes, there is. Paul found it — we can all find it!

We have been proceeding upon a false basis. We have conceived of the Christian life as an imitation of Christ. It is not an imitation of Christ. It is a participation in Christ.

To proceed on the basis of imitation will plunge us into just the sort of “slough of despond” Paul found himself in when he wrote Romans 7. Only when Christ nullifies the force of my inherent “self-life” and communicates to me a divine life does Christian living in its true sense become at all possible for me. What is impossible to me as an imitator of Christ becomes perfectly natural as a participant of Christ.

“An angel of the Lord stood by him… saying, Arise quickly!.. So he went out and followed him” (Acts 12:7,9).

There are some who would gladly follow the Lord completely and who understand what it means to be entirely given up to him, but do not see how they can maintain it. They don’t see the hand of God outstretched to lift them up and sustain them; they don’t dare to trust His promise, so they are afraid to start.

In some ways they are like Peter in the prison at Jerusalem. They are in bondage to sin just as he was in bondage to Herod; they know they are chained to the world just as Peter was chained to soldiers on either side. Their prison is dark, and its iron gate shut.

In this situation the gospel comes to them as the angel of the Lord came to Peter while he slept between his keepers — and shakes them, saying, “Get up and follow me.”

But here is the difference: Peter got up, put on his clothes and followed, almost as in a dream. But these people just sit there, still in their chains, and say, “But what about these chains — how will they be broken off? And the soldiers on each side of me — who will protect me from them? And how do I get past the the iron gate and the sentries?”

The difficulties along the way frighten and weaken them. If only they would get up at the call of the gospel and give themselves completely to follow the Lord Jesus, He would go with them. And then, just like Peter in the prison, the way would open up in the light of His presence, every enemy would sleep on, every barrier would swing wide open, and they would step easily and delightedly into a way of happiness and a path of peace.

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17).

The gospel proclaims a new creation: a new tree — union with a new root — being grafted on to a new stock. This is not to improve the old, but to be translated into a new position.

Take another illustration. Here is a man, let us suppose, who has failed in business. He is not only hopelessly insolvent; his credit is gone, and his name is disgraced. All efforts of his own to retrieve his position are utterly fruitless; he is beyond all hope of recovery in that direction. But hope comes to him from another quarter. Let us suppose he is taken into partnership by one whose name stands high in the commercial world. He becomes a partner in a wealthy and honorable firm. All his debts are paid by that firm, and the past is cancelled. But this is not all. He gets an entirely new standing. His old name is set aside, forgotten, buried forever. He has now a new name. In that name he transacts all his business. His old name is never again mentioned.

We have here a faint shadow of what the gospel bestows. To be a believer in Christ is to have passed out of our old position — to lose our old name — and to take our stand on an entirely new ground. We are baptized “into the name of the Lord”; we are “in Christ.” This is not a privilege that comes to the believer by degrees; it is complete and absolute at once. And the moment the transition takes place, the believer stands, not on the ground of probation, but on the ground of redemption.

This truth is fundamental. The “in Christ” of standing is the foundation of all practical godliness, of all Christian service. We must start here, or we cannot take a single step in the way of holiness.

The fact is, that as to ourselves, we but little realize the truth of God’s presence with us and in us, and thus failing to walk with God, we are taken by surprise by many of the events which happen to us, and we do not meet our difficulties and trials in the steady assurance that they are all appointed of the Father, and that we have Christ with us to help us to bear them, to make us more than conquerors in them, or to give us deliverance out of them.

Our faith is too much kept, as it were, for great occasions, or for the question of our salvation only; and the exercise of it in the ordinary occupations of life, the habit of living by faith, is comparatively unknown to us. But surely one great purpose of God in giving us the history of our Lord’s life on earth is that we may see in Him the blessed example of living active faith, and cease-less trust in the Father, and that we may follow His steps.

And one object of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost is, that we may have God always with us and in us, to strengthen, to help, to comfort, and to guide us ; so that we may live our life in the flesh, by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us. There are three principal spheres for the exercise of our faith—our own hearts, our houses, and the church of God ; and we shall find, that in proportion as we cultivate the presence of Christ in either of these three spheres, so shall we find Him with us in the other two.

There are a lot of people who still feel more comfortable in religious Christianity if they are told to do something. There is something within our inherent nature that we feel we must always do something, especially when an authority figure is doing the telling. We’re not happy just relaxing and being a living expression of Christ Jesus.

In Colossians 2:20 notice the passive nature — “Why… do you submit to ordinances?” Why do you allow yourself to be subjected to people who say “Don’t, don’t, don’t”? So can we still be in control of our lives? Absolutely! You’ve got the “let” in verse 16, the “let” in verse 18, and now you have this statement in verse 20, “Why… do you submit?” There is no reason for these regulations. They have “a reputation, an appearance of wisdom” but “they are of no value” (verse 23).

So if you still feel you have to take some step, some action in order to have full spiritual power or growth, then according to Paul you are being misled. The text says that these things all perish with the using and have been obtained from human teaching. They are all transient things. Christian television today is swamped with teachers telling you what you should or must do in order to have this or that or go to a higher level. It is mostly nonsense, human teaching of “no value.” In the church age, it is not what you eat or drink or do that counts. What is important is what you have — Christ within! “For [in Christ Jesus] neither circumcision and uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation” (Galatians 6:15 NET Bible).

Christ in you is permanent, so there’s no reason to go down the road of self-disciplining the body to gain spiritual progress. Now, some of us are living evidence that a little self-discipline wouldn’t hurt. I’m not talking about that! I’m talking about the fact of doing it to gain spiritual growth, doing it to make yourself a spiritually better person. It is not necessary. We have Christ within us, the expectation of glory.

I believe that the Christ within us is so perfect, so totally complete (verse 9) that we have no need for anything else. We do not have to add anything to it. We do not have to do anything about it. We merely have to believe it. That’s the beautiful teaching of the New Testament as I read it. We are complete in Him.