THE NEW CREATION

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

 

04-29-56

 

Now, let's turn to the fifth chapter of the Second Corinthian letter, and we will start reading at the twelfth verse and read to the end of the chapter.  Second Corinthians, the fifth chapter, starting at the twelfth verse and reading to the end; Second Corinthians five, beginning at the twelfth verse.  All right, are we ready?  Together—

For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. 

For, whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then we are all dead. 

And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again. 

Wherefore, henceforth know we that no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us, the word of reconciliation. 

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled unto God. 

For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him [2 Corinthians 5:12-21]. 

Dewey Hunt came unto me as I came over the building tonight.  And he said, "Pastor, you know of course, that you are preaching on the passage in the Bible that is the basis and the text and the watchword of our Royal Ambassadors?"  And I said, "Yes, I know that."  So in the message we do not take in that twentieth verse.  How many of you, tonight whose boys are in the Royal Ambassador?  Would you stand up?  Would you stand up?  All of you boys that are Royal Ambassadors, would you stand up?  There is a whole group of them, a bunch of them, still getting up.  Still up, thank you, there is a large group of them here.  If we were close enough, we would repeat that twentieth verse together.  “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God" [2 Corinthians 5:20].  Now then, you also have the fourteenth verse: "For the love of Christ constraineth us" [2 Corinthians 5:14]; which was the text this morning.  Now, the title of the message tonight is THE NEW CREATION.  And the text is the seventeenth verse: "Therefore if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" [2 Corinthians 5:17]. 

When the Lord God finished His work at the end of the sixth day, there has never been any other new creation from the hands of God.  Everything has been made and has stayed made just like God made it—all of the world, all of the animals, all of the sea, all of the grasses, all of the herbs.  Everything is just as God made it in the beginning, except for the Fall that ruined and defaced it.  But since the sixth day, God has made no new creation.  The sixth day, the man the Lord God made walked into the Garden of Eden with all of his faculties, just like you have today.  There has been nothing added, there has been nothing taken away.  We have everything in the beginning of creation that we have now.  Now, the one exception to that is this new creation that God brings to pass in the heart and in the soul of a man.  "Therefore if any one be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; … all things are become new."  So the Lord God says.  And when a man becomes a Christian, when a man is saved, there is always a change in him, always. 

Here, Saul of Tarsus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the Lord and the people of the Lord.  And he is changed, he is saved, he is converted, he is a new man, he is another man, he is a different man, he is changed man.  This new man is Paul, the preacher of the gospel of the Son of God.  Here is an old, worthless doctor.  And his name is Mel Trotter.  And he is down there in the gutter.  And now look at him, he has been saved, he is a new creation.  There is a change in him.  He is an evangelist and a minister of the gospel of the Son of God.  Here is a man who has been depending upon his good works.  He belongs to the civic organizations.  And he belongs to the fraternal organizations.  And he pays his debt and he lives an exemplary life in the community.  And he says he is going to be saved by his good works.  And then, the man is really saved.  He is born again.  He is changed, and he no longer looks on his good works, other than like God sees them—just filthy righteousnesses, just filthy rags.  All of his works now are nothing.  He is depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ, he is a changed man.  He is a different man.  Here is a child, and the child is like Samuel. 

And the Bible says little Samuel did not know the Lord.  And little Samuel did not know the Word of the Lord.  And in the nighttime there came to him, "Samuel, Samuel," and he woke up.  And hearing his name called, he thought old Eli called him.  And he went to old Eli and he said, "Here am I, for thou didst call me." And old Eli said, "I didn't call you.  I did not call you.  Go back."  And then a third time the Bible says, "Eli perceived it was the Lord that called the child." There was a change in the child.  That little old boy of yours, that little old girl of yours can go along and go along and upon a day, that child will tug at your sleeve.  And they will say, "Daddy—or Mother, I want to give my heart to Jesus, I want to join the church.  I want to be baptized."  There is a change in the child.  There is always a change.  "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; … all things are become new."  Now, that change is wrought by God.  And that change is always evident.  And that change is always present, always.  There is no body that is ever saved that is not changed.  And if he is not changed, he is not saved.  That is what it is to be saved.  It is to be changed.  He is a new creation. 

To begin with, the Bible uses that word “repentance” in great depth; metanoia, “repentance, to repent.”  And the Greek word, translated “repentance means “a change in attitude, a change in mind, a change in spirit.”  A fellow is changed.  He is turned around.  This could be a typical illustration of it.  A fellow, and he has been away all of his life, he has been selling liquor on every corner, and in every grocery store.  Then, something happens, and he changes his mind, and he says, "I am not any longer in favor of selling liquor.  I am against that illicit, illegal, terrible trapping.  I am against it."  He has changed his mind, metanoia.  Here is a fellow, and he has been a Communist, and he has been against the free world.  But after a stint in Russia or Red China, why the boy turns around.  He gets converted.  He changes his mind, and he says, "I am not a Communist, I am for the free world."  Here is a fellow that is a gambler, and I recall the story of a fellow now.  And he saw a little ragged and hungry boy on his way to school.  And looking at that little, emaciated, unfed fellow, that little boy; he had played cards with that little boy's father the night before and had won all of the earnings of the little boy's father.  And when he looked at that little, ragged, hungry boy going to school, and knowing that he had won everything that his father had the night before, he changed his mind.  He said, "I am not a gambler and I am not gambling any more."  That is what a metanoia is.  It is a change in attitude, it is a change in mind.  {The] same thing about a little child.  A little child will be indifferent and go along and go along.  And upon a day, the little child is greatly interested.  Whenever there is a conversion, there is a change.  And when there is no change, there is not any conversion. 

And when the Bible says that there are only two classes of people in this world, just two.  And it never deviates from that, just two.  They are either saved or lost, that's all.  We are either saved or lost.  And there is no gray, there is no in-between.  There is just two.  We are either saved or we are lost.  One of these Indians up there in Oklahoma was translating for a missionary.  And the missionary did not know it until later.  But when he preached to the people and said, "There are just two classes of people, the saved and the lost."   Why that interpreter said, "Now, the missionary says, There is just two classes of people, the saved and the lost, the good and the bad."  But the interpreter said, "I do not agree with that.  I think there are three classes of people.  I think there are good people, and I think there are bad people, and I think there are just in-between people like I am, both good and both bad."  Well, that may be a human perception and interpretation of life, but God does not look upon life as a man looks upon it.  In God's sight, there are two classes of people.  And in the Bible there is no deviation from that. 

When you read in the Gospels, there are always just two.   There are wheat and tares, there are sheep and goats, there are those accepting the invitation of the host and there are those that are refusing the invitation of the host.  There are those who are banqueting at the table of the Lord, and there are those who are out there doing their own things.  And there are the wise virgins and the foolish virgins.  There are good fish and bad fish caught in the net.  There are those who believe and those who do not believe.  There is not any example in the gospel of an exception to that whatsoever.  In the gospel there is always just two, the saved and the lost.  Now, when you turn to the Epistles, it is the same thing.  They will say that some of us are quickened and some of us are dead in trespasses and in sin.  Some of us are the children of light and some of us are the children of the night, of the dark.  Some of us are aliens and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and to the kingdom of God, and some of us brethren and citizens.  Some of us are far away and some of us have been made nigh by the blood of Christ.  Always in the Bible, there are just two classes.  Now, when a man is saved, he has stepped over the line.  He comes out of one group into the other group and every time a man is saved, he has stepped over that line.  And if he has not stepped over that line, he has not been saved.  And "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; and behold, all things are become new" [2 Corinthians 5:17]. 

Now, there are three ways in the Bible that the Bible describes that change that comes in a man's life.  One, it is described as a birth.  In John 1:12, He says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become the children of God, even them that trust in his name: who were born—who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God" [John 1:12, 13].  When a man is saved, when he crosses over that line, he is born again.  The Bible says.  Now in the third chapter of the Gospel of John is the same thing: ”Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" [John 3:3].  1 Peter, 1:23 says we are born again “by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever."  And James 1:18 says, "Of his own will begat he us by the word of God." So the Book says when a man is saved, he is born again. 

Now, another word in the Bible that is used to describe this change is the word “quickening.”  In the second chapter of the Book of Ephesians says, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead is trespasses and in sin" [Ephesians 2:1].  And in the fifth verse: "even when we were dead in sins, God hath quickened us together in Christ" [Ephesians 2:5].  What do you mean by a “quickening”?  Well, the word “quickening” is a word that is used to refer to life, the life itself.  An old time word for dead was—the old-time word for life was “to be quick.”  It will refer, in the Bible, to the "quick and the dead"; that is, the living and the dead.  And when the Bible uses the word “quick,” it means “alive, sensitive.”  And God says that by the Spirit of the Lord we are “quickened; we who were dead in trespasses and in sins" [Ephesians 2:1].  God touches the heart, God touches the life. 

I went to see a young woman who belongs to this church.  She belongs to this church.  She does not belong to God, she does not belong to Christ, she belongs to this church.  I baptized her, she was not baptized to the Holy Spirit, nor was she baptized into the kingdom of heaven.  I baptized her by water and she is a member of this church and I went to see her this week and I talked to her.  Her heart is in the world.  Her life is in the world.  There is no quickening in her soul, none at all.  When I talked to her about the church, I might as well have talked to her about Mars.  When I talked to her about the kingdom of heaven, I might as well talk to her about some alien and strange commonwealth in another world or in a past era.  There is no quickening in her heart, there is no sensitivity in her soul.  There is no response in her.  She is dead.  Now, I talked to a man this week who does not belong to this church.  I talked to a man this week who has never made a confession of faith.  I talked to a man this week who has never been baptized.  His wife is a humble and devout Christian and they have a precious little family.  And she asked me to speak to her husband.  And I talked to him.  And the Spirit of God has quickened his heart.  As I talked to him about the Lord he was deeply moved.  And when we prayed, tears fell off of his face.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit of God.  That is the change that comes into a man's soul and into a man's heart.  And if he is not quickened, he is not saved.  And if he is not ever quickened, he will never be saved.  “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.”  And one of the words the Bible uses for that is the word “quicken.” 

Now, the third one is the one that I have been using in my text.  In the sixteenth [fifteenth] verse of the last chapter of Galatians it says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision but a new creation" [Galatians 6:15].  And that is my think: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.”  God makes him over again.  God changes him.  God puts another spirit in his body and another heart in him and another soul in him.  If a man is a Christian, he is a different man and a changed man.  “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” Now, that creation is always instantaneous.  If a fellow is ever saved, he is always saved suddenly.  “Now, Preacher, now wait a minute.”  Now, here we are with a great deal of experience and testimony.  I have listened to many people who were devout and humble and sincere Christians and they say to me, they say, "Preacher, I know I have been saved.  I know I have been born again.  I am a Christian.  I feel it in my soul and I feel it in my heart.  But Pastor, for the life of me I cannot put my finger on the exact date and the exact hour and the exact place where I became a Christian, where I was born again.  I know became a Christian.  I know I became a Christian.  I know I am a Christian, but I cannot tell you that exact place and that exact hour.  Therefore, I do not believe—I do not believe that conversion is necessarily instantaneous, that it happened suddenly, just all at once; but I believe it can be gradual."

Well, that part is true, that a man can be a Christian.  I have seen them.   I have listened to their testimonies.  It is true that one can be a Christian and never be able to place his finger on the exact time and day and hour where he was changed.  “Right there I became a Christian/”  Most of us can—almost all of us can—we can say, "Right there I became a Christian?”  “Right there I was saved.”  “There God, for Christ's sake, forgave me my sin."  But some of us cannot.  Therefore, they say conversion is gradual.  Well, a conversion is a beginning and a beginning is never gradual.  I either begin or I do not begin.  I have begun or I have not begun.  There is no such thing as a beginning being gradual.  It may be a little, tiny, eensy-weensy beginning.  I have stood on the Monarch Pass in Arkansas [Colorado—near the source of the Arkansas River] and I have caught the river in the cup of my hand.  When I was there, there was a big snow back there.  And this is about the middle of July.  There is a big snow right there on the backside of that pass, and the water dripping down from the snow back that side of it, the water that went on that side went to the Colorado River and into the Pacific Ocean.  But the water on this side, that dripped on this side, went to make the Arkansas River to the Mississippi River and down to the Gulf and to the Atlantic Ocean.  And I held that Arkansas River in my hand.  And that was an itsy-bitsy beginning, and a tiny start; but that is a start.  It is there or it is not there.  It starts or it does not start.  It begins or it does not begin.  It cannot be and not be at the same time.  Isn't that logical, doesn't that make sense?  The Mississippi River—and by the way, I am going up there and if I get a chance I am going to look at that thing.  The Mississippi River somewhere is so small and so narrow that they tell me you can walk across it.  You just step across the Mississippi River.  Up there where it starts, right in one of those little lakes there in Minnesota or some such place. 

Now, all of God's works are like that[ all of them, every one of them.  And there is no exception to it.  A man is dead or he is alive.  "Well," the doctor says, "Preacher, how can you tell when a man is dead or when he is alive?"  Well, it is hard to tell.  “Well,” you say, it is easy to tell when a man is dead or is alive."  No, it is hard to tell.  It is hard to tell.  Sometimes you think he is dead and he is alive.  Sometimes you think he is alive and he is dead.  “No, no, no,” they used to tell me over there in Arkansas—they used to tell me that “when you see a fellow leaning against a post over there in Arkansas and you do not know which is the post and which is the fellow leaning against it, you just look at it and wait until one of them moves.  And when one of them moves, that is the post.”  That is what they tell me.  It is hard to tell these days, when a fellow is dead.  I do not care how, there is a moment, there is a time when we are dead or alive.  There is a time there, known like this to God, when the spirit of life leaves the body and the body is dead.  We may look as though we died gradually, but there is a time when we are dead, when the life absolutely leaves the body.  Now, all of God's creative works are that way.  When God does anything, He does it by science.  That is, He says, "Let it be."  And there it is.  And He does not do it any other way.  When God does something, He does it instantaneously.  And God said, "Let there be light and there is light" [Genesis 1:3].  [It is] like punching the button and the whole thing comes on.  That is God's work.  And God said, "Let the grass grow." And there it grew.  And God said, "Let the animals be," and there they are.  God does these things instantaneously.  And He made a man and He breathed into that man the breath of life.  And He did it just like that, instantaneously, suddenly.  And God did all of His creative works.  He just spoke it and there it is.  Now, the same thing has happened in the New Testament. 

Whenever Jesus did anything, just like that, and it came to pass.  "Here is the water," and just like that it happens.  It goes from one to the other immediately.  Here is a blind man and he opens his eyes immediately.  Even that story about the pool of Shiloh, when they said, "How did you get your eyes opened?" He said, "I went to the pool of Shiloh and I washed and I did see, just like that."  And when the Lord unstopped deaf ears, He just did it immediately.  When He raised the dead, "Rise and come to Me," the little girl arose.  And when He stopped the bier coming out from them, He said, "Young man, arise," and He rose.  And when He spoke to Lazarus, "Lazarus come forth," and Lazarus came forth.  And when He spoke to the winds and waves and they ceased.  When He cursed the fig tree, there it withered.  When He multiplied the loaves and fishes, He just did it.  That's the way that God does all of His works.  And that is the way the Lord God does in our souls.  When we are saved, we are saved immediately.  And the act of salvation is an instantaneous act. 

Now, there may be many things leading up to it,  There may be many things that condition it.  There may be many prayers and many searchings and many longings and conferences and many things that guide a man's soul.  But when a man is saved, there is a saved—there is a place in his life when he gives his heart and trust to Christ and he becomes a Christian.  Now, when you take that to the Bible, that is just all the way through.  And the Lord talks to the Samaritan woman and she believes and she is saved.  And the Lord calls Zaccheus to come out of a tree and he is saved.  And at Pentecost, Peter preaches and three thousand of them are saved.  And Paul and Silas spoke to the Philippian jailer and he is saved.  And when a man makes up his heart or his mind, or a child or anyone of us, to accept the Lord as his Savior, that instance, he becomes a Christian.  There is a change in him.  If any man be in Christ, there is a change in him; old things are passed away and all things become new. 

Now, may I say a final word about that change?  I say, it is very easily distinguishable.  You can tell it.  You can easily see it.  According to the Word of the Lord here—listen, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things pass away and all things become new" [2 Corinthians 5:17].  And here is how you can tell.  In the ninth verse: "Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him" [2 Corinthians 5:9].  That is one of the strangest words there: "Wherefore we labor."  There is a Greek word for “labor.”  There is [are] a half-a- dozen Greek words for “labor”; but the word used here is the strangest word you ever saw.  The Greek word for “love, friendship” is philos, P H-I-L-O-S, philos, “love, friendship, philanthropy, philology,” all of those words beginning with “philo” is  [are] built on that word for love.  There is a Greek word for “honor”; time, time, and the Greek word translated here for labor is philotimoumetha, which is, "we," a plural of it, philotimia, “love of honor.”  Isn't that a strange thing there?  "Wherefore we love of honor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him" [2 Corinthians 5:9]. Well here is what that Greek word, philotimoumetha means; it means this” “a striving, an ambition for honor” from the hands of some body that you are wonderful and desperately trying to please.  Oh, there is endless illustration, example, of that in our lives.  Take a thing like this, for example.  There is a young violinist and he is the best violinist in this world.  He is prodigy, he is an unusual genius. He is marvelous violinist.  And he is up there in Carnegie Hall.  He is at the Philharmonic Auditorium.  He is some place and he is playing before a great and appreciative audience.  But he does not care a snap of his finger about the five thousand or the ten thousand people there that are listening to him play.  And the reason for it is this, his teacher, his master is seated up there in one corner of the balcony.  And as the young genius, virtuoso, plays.  As he plays, he looks for the commending smile and the eye of pleasure from his old master, seated up there in the corner of the balcony.  That is what that word means.  He is ambitious, he is ambitious to receive honor, accommodation from somebody whom he greatly desires to please.  That is what that Greek word means. 

We are all that way.  We are all that way to some extent.  There are people that you know and that are in your life that if ten thousand others did not like what she was doing, but if some body were to commend you and be appreciative of what you are doing it does not matter, it does not matter.

 

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