LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
A New Creation
The reality of a Christian shows a vivid contrast to any form of religiosity. If we take Judaism or any other "ism" that exists in the world, what will we find? Is it not invariably something for the betterment of the first man? But what is true Christianity? It is something entirely new, spiritual, divine; it is based on the cross of Christ, where the old man was crucified and taken off God's list forever.
The cross closes the story of the first man. "I am crucified with Christ", says the apostle (Gal. 2:20). Is this only lip service or is it based on the powerful word of the Holy Spirit? True Christianity begins with the open tomb of the Second Man, to continue his brilliant career to eternal glory. It is a new creation, in which there is absolutely nothing of the old things, for all things are made new.
What a rest! What a sweet relief to poor burdened souls who have vainly sought to find peace by their own means; what a deliverance from the legality of the law, to find the precious secret that my guilt and ruin, all my decay, all these things which I have been trying, by every means, in myself, to improve, have been completely and forever laid aside; that God is seeking no amendment in my nature; that He has condemned it and brought it to the cross of His Son.
We may truly say that Satan's most successful effort against the truth of the gospel, against true New Testament Christianity, is seen in the fact that he leads unconverted people to appropriate and apply ordinances of a Christian religion and profess many of the doctrines. Thus their eyes are blinded to their true ruined and guilty condition, and the pure gospel of Christ receives a severe blow.
The best piece that could have been put on the old garments of man's ruined nature is the profession of an empty Christianity. Mark 2:21 says: "No man putteth a patch of new cloth on an old garment; otherwise the new patch itself pulleth out the old, and the rent is made worse".
"For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:19-20). This, and nothing else, is true Christianity; not the old man becoming religious. No, it is the death and burial of the old man, who becomes a new man in Christ. It is the passing from the old creation to the new creation, from the old state of sin and death, to a new state of life, of righteousness in a risen and glorified Christ, the Head of a new creation, to the last Adam. This is the unalterable position of the weakest believer in Christ (C.H.M.).