New Creation

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

As Leonard Ravenhill says: The greatest miracle on earth next to Jesus raised from the dead to the right of the Father in heaven is this: God will take a vile offender from this unclean world, transforms them to become holy, put them back on this earth, and sustain them to live, holy in this world. These holy men and women, in turn, become a light unto the world (Matthew 5:16)

If there is ever a time when that light is needed more than ever is now. With all the darkness surrounding us in this world, the question arises: does God still perform this miracle? Was it just something that happened in history (because history shows us this indeed happened: one example that readily comes to mind is Saul later Apostle Paul) and is never meant to happen again? If God still performs this miracle now, how is it that we still live in such great darkness?

I believe the answer to these questions is that we have very few accounts of true salvation. You might say, but we have a lot of people that come to the altar now and then to give their life to Christ, perhaps you have gone to the altar yourself and said the salvation prayer as we call it. That is true, but how many of these people never return to their old lives after leaving the altar? 

Thank God for the knowledge and revelation we have in this dispensation to understand the truths of the written word of God. More than this, we need to experience these truths in our lives. In our main text, Apostle Paul says to the church in Corinthians that if a man is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; all things have become new. Jesus puts it in this way: “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:16-17)

As Christians, we cannot claim to be genuinely saved and continue living our lives the way we did before. A dead man does not do the same thing he used to do before his death. You say that is common sense; yes, it is, and that is what the Bible says happens to us when we are saved. Salvation simply is dying to this world and being raised to life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:6-7). Christ ought to be the only source of our after salvation, then only can we shine as light in this dark world, for we know that He is the light of the world and where that light shines, the darkness cannot comprehend it (John 1:4-5).

Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we come into this experiential knowledge of becoming a new creature and become a light in this dark and dying world. I encourage your beloved to lift your heart in prayer, asking for the Holy Spirit to bring you into the reality of becoming a new creature in Christ.

Whilst you make this your prayer, I encourage you to ponder on this hymn by F. R. Havergal: 

Thy life was given for me,

Thy blood, O Lord, was shed,

That I might ransomed be,

And quickened from the dead:

Thy life was giv’n for me;

What have I giv’n for Thee?

Long years were spent for me

In weariness and woe,

That through eternity

Thy glory I might know:

Long years were spent for me;

Have I spent one for Thee?

Thy Father’s home of light,

Thy rainbow-circled throne,

Were left for earthly night:

For wand’rings sad and lone:

Yea, all was left for me;

Have I left aught for Thee?

Thou, Lord, hast borne for me

More than my tongue can tell

Of bitt’rest agony,

To rescue from hell;

Thou suffer’dst all for me;

What have I borne for Thee?

And Thou hast brought to me

Down from Thy home above

Salvation full and free,

Thy pardon and Thy love:

Great gifts Thou broughtest to me;

What have I brought to Thee?

O let my live be giv’n, 

My years for Thee be spent,

World-fetters all be riv’n

And joy with suff’ring blent:

Thou gav’st Thyself for me;

I give myself to Thee.