2 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. I. THE CHRISTIAN'S POSITION — "in Christ." There are three stages of the soul. First — Without Christ, this is the state of nature, and is a most unhappy condition. It is inconvenient to be without gold; it is miserable to be without health, without a friend, without reputation, but to be without Christ is the worst lack in all the world. The next state, "in Christ," leadeth to the third, with Christ, which is the state of glory. 1. Our business now is with the second, "in Christ," which is the state of grace. I never heard of any persons being in any other man but Christ. We may follow certain leaders, and imitate eminent examples, but no man is said in these respects to be in another. (1) We must interpret this by scriptural symbols. (a) We were all of us in the first Adam. Adam stood for us. Now, as in Adam we all fell, so all who are in Christ are restored. (b) Noah's ark was a type of Christ. Christ is the ark of God provided against the day of judgment, and we are in Him. (c) Christ is God's eternal city of refuge, and we, having offended, flee for our lives and enter where vengeance cannot reach us. (2) Christ represents us as being in Him as the branch is in the vine. (3) Paul describes us as being in Christ also as the stone is in the building. In some of the old Roman walls you can scarcely tell which is the firmer, the cement or the stone, for their cement held the stones together as though they were one mass of rock; and such is the eternal love which binds the saints to Christ. 2. "How do we conic to be there?" (1) By faith. (2) By love.When love and faith come together, then there is a blessedly sweet communion. II. THE BELIEVER'S CHARACTER — a "new creature." The phrase suggests — 1. A radical change. (1) A man may undergo many changes, but they may be far from being radical enough to be a new creation. Ahab may humble himself, but he is Ahab still. (a) Conversion is sometimes described as healing; but healing does not rise to the radical character of the text. Naaman washed in Jordan, and came up with his flesh clean like unto a little child; but it was the same flesh and the same Naaman. The woman, bowed down with infirmity eighteen years, was marvellously changed when she stood upright; but she was the same woman. (b) There are great moral changes wrought in many which are not saving. A drunkard may become sober, and many persons of debauched habits regular; and yet their changes may not amount to regeneration. The most startling changes will not suffice unless they are total and deep. The Ethiopian might change his skin, the leopard his spots; but the leopard would remain a leopard, and the Ethiop would still be black at heart. (c) Even the metaphor of resurrection does not go so far as the language of the text. The daughter of Jairus is the same child, and Lazarus is the same man after restoration to life. A new creation is a root-and-branch change; not an alteration of the walls only, but of the foundation; not a new figuring of the visible tapestry, but a renewal of the fabric itself. (2) We are new creatures through being in Christ. People object to the doctrine that men are saved by faith in Christ on the ground that there must be a great moral change. But if those who are in Christ are new creatures, what greater change can be desired? He who believes in Christ, finding himself pardoned, loves Christ, and loves the God who gave Christ, and love to God expels love to sin. 2. A Divine work. If any doubt it, let us bid them make the effort to create the smallest object. (1) Regeneration is God's sole work. In the first creation who helped God? So the sovereign will of God creates men heirs of grace. (2) It was more difficult to create a Christian than to create a world. Unto Him, then, be glory and strength! 3. Remarkable freshness. It is very long since this world saw a new creature. All the creatures we now see are old and antiquated. Any new creature coming fresh into the world would startle us all. And yet the text tells you that there are new creatures upon earth, fruits that have freshness and bloom of Eden about them, life with the dew of its youth upon it; and these new creatures are Christian men. There is a freshness about them which is to be found nowhere else. He that prayed yesterday with joy, shall pray in fifty years' time, if he be on earth, with the selfsame delight. He that loves his Maker, and feels his heart beat high at the mention of the name of Jesus, shall find as much transport in that name, if he lives to the age of Methuselah, as he doth now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. |
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