NEW CREATION
[p. 385] NEW CREATION
The subject I desire to take up is christianity; it is one which we ought all to know well, but perhaps there is no subject we are so partially acquainted with; christianity is simply as Christ is.
I begin this evening with
“NEW CREATION”.
Everything is new; all is derived from Christ. In this scripture we see it begins with reconciliation. If you do not know the beginning, you cannot know the finish. First, then, as to reconciliation itself, I find the great practical difficulty to souls is one simple question, and I wish saints were more exercised about it. It is, what is the nature of the distance between God and the sinner? Now I am addressing many who have been long on the road, and who have learnt a great deal; still I put to you all this simple question, and though many answers partly true might be given to it, there is really but one answer. Evidently Cain knew that there was a distance between God and him, but he did not know the nature of it. And in my acquaintance even with the most advanced christians, I find that here they are defective, they do not know the nature of the distance. Now if the distance is not all gone, there is no reconciliation according to God. The word ‘atonement’ does not occur in the New Testament; the word translated ‘atonement’ in Romans 5 is reconciliation, and reconciliation is the removing of all between God and the sinner. The great question is, what is the distance? You may say, your sins. Yes; but that does not measure it. I go to the root, the root of many a sorrowful hour to me and to every one of us; it is the flesh. It astounds one [p. 386] to hear it, but it is true. “The flesh profits nothing” (John 6: 63); “they that are in flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8: 8). God said, “The end of all flesh is come before me” (Genesis 6: 13), and He sent the flood. This has been accomplished in the cross. The apostle writes, “The love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and has been raised”. Mark what follows. “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh;” we are still walking in flesh, but we do not war after the flesh. Many mistakes have been made about new creation, but the real defect is that saints have not apprehended the distance which is to be removed in order to effect reconciliation. The man after the flesh must be removed. As the first man must be removed, and there is another Man to supplant him, it is plain enough; and that is precisely the truth taught here. The apostle writes, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more”. He went down into death, and He is raised from the dead; and it is on the ground of the risen Man that we are justified, “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4: 24). “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again”. Practically you find that while every christian believes that Christ died, a great many do not know Him risen. If you had a real sense that He went into death for you, the one great desire before your heart would be to see Him out of it. For He is out of it. “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4: 25). And therefore, “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away”. Some understand that to mean that when you are converted the old things are improved. Not a bit of it; “the old things have passed away;
behold all things have become new”. You may say, That is very sweeping. So it is; but mark what is introduced; it is wonderful - all things are of God. As we proceed we shall see more of this; but the beginning is reconciliation, which has been consummated by the resurrection of Christ.
I go on now to the proof that you believe in Christ risen, and that is that you have received the Holy Spirit. The only bond with Christ is the Spirit of God. “If any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him” (Romans 8: 9); it is not “none of his” but “not of him”. Hence, “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6: 17); that is your responsibility. You belong to the Lord. “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed” (Ephesians 1: 13). The Spirit is the link. The living water is Christ’s answer to your faith in Him. He said, “Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” (John 4: 14). The great thing to see is that the flesh is gone, and the only link with Christ is the Spirit of God. There can be no other link. I am still dwelling on the reconciliation and the fulness of the gospel. We read in Romans 5: 5 that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. The very first action of the Holy Spirit in your heart is to assure you that God loves you. Many a one is hindered by being occupied with his own feelings. The unmistakable mark of your having the Holy Spirit is that God is before you. We get an illustration of it in the prodigal son; the great impression that the father makes on him is, I love you. So when you have received the Holy Spirit, the first impression you get of God is that God loves you; that is the unmistakable mark. The gospel is that God has cleared everything away from His own side, and has received you upon the ground of Another - the [p. 388] Man of His pleasure. He has accepted you in Christ; you must be either in Adam or in Christ; “in the Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15: 22).
You are in Christ before God, “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1: 6), you are graced in the Beloved. God can receive with open arms the prodigal, or a Saul of Tarsus, or the thief on the cross, or the Philippian jailor, or yourself. But what does He do? Not only has He cleared away all that was between Him and you, but the very first action of His divine power in your soul is to tell you His feelings about you. The one great impression the father made upon the prodigal son was, I love you; that is the gospel. Now I trust every one in this room at any rate sees where the gospel sets us; everything has been cleared away to God’s satisfaction in the cross; the man after the flesh has gone from His eye, and another Man is before Him to His entire satisfaction, and we are in Him, and we receive the Holy Spirit from that Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.