Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Cor. 5:16-17)
Let us take a close look at the new creation so we can understand properly why the Bible tells us that we are one. The foundation of the new creation is Christ Himself. The verses above illustrate this point well. Jesus of Nazareth with regard to His identity was the only begotten son of God. I think it is fair to say that we as believers have no problem with this so we will move on. Jesus however, did not depend upon His identity with God in order to be justified but rather laid all this aside and walked as a mere man before His father in heaven. This can be seen from the scripture in Phil. 2:5-8. For Jesus to walk as a mere man before God meant that He could only be justified by faith since it is also written that “the just shall live by faith”(Rom.1:17) The glorious truth here is that Jesus did walk by faith as a man and did not fall from this place of righteousness through faith. He was made perfect as our high priest and He became the author of eternal salvation to all who would follow His example of faith obedience which He authorised as the author and finisher of our faith. (Heb.5:9 & Heb.12:2)
Having lived a perfect life as a man before God He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit without spot to God. The next part is very important to understand so please do not let it block you from reading the rest of this message. When Jesus did this He died as Jesus of Nazareth, the son of man and the son of Mary. Jesus of Nazareth is now dead and will never be seen again in that flesh and blood identity which He offered without spot. We cannot offer something to God in its fleshly form and still have it and Jesus was no different in this regard. Consider the following verses for your own satisfaction.
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. (John 14:19
When He (the Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. (John 16:8-10)
Of course we know that the disciples did see Jesus again after His resurrection but it was not the flesh and blood, natural mortal man Jesus, anymore. It was the newly created Jesus as the life giving spirit Christ man, whom God had made Lord of all. Jesus was sown in weakness as a natural mortal man who lived perfectly by faith. He was sown as the grain of wheat which fell to the ground and died so it could bring forth more sons in His likeness (see John 12:24).
It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and after- ward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Cor. 44-47)
And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life giving spirit. (1 Cor.15:45)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. (1 Pet 3:18)
He is now a life giving Spirit who lives in His body the church. We as His people are the only body He has at this time. I believe this is the reason why the apostle Paul says that we no longer know Jesus according to the flesh. (2 Cor. 5:16) I would suggest that if we ever see Jesus again as an individual person it will only be in His spiritual body and also when we have our spiritual bodies. Please note that this only a suggestion but does have a reason which I cannot go into here.
With this understanding we can now see that our heavenly father after the ascension of Christ now had a perfect faith life of righteousness in hand to freely offer to all men as a gift. All men could now be freely made righteous by faith while living in their bodies of death. All this comes from the unspeakable gift of Jesus laying His life down for us, Glory hallelujah. Hopeful- ly we can now see that because Jesus was made a new creature we also can be made new crea- tures in Him.
Let us look a little deeper into this glorious truth so we can be fully persuaded. The scripture tells us that all of our sins have been forgiven, glory to God. This of course applies to all past, present and future sins. There really is no more remembrance of sins. (Heb.8:12, 10:17) If there is no more remembrance of sins then it must follow that there is no more consciousness of sins for the believer. If all of my future sins were not dealt with through the cross of Christ I could never stand as a new creature before God. There would always be the ques- tion hanging over me concerning my future in this world. It is worth mentioning that we don’t go to God to receive forgiveness. We go to Him because we awake to the truth that our sins have been forgiven. Our sins are not forgiven when we are born again. The new birth is our awakening to the reality that our sins have already been forgiven.
Of course we are not just forgiven sinners. If that was the case then we could never be free from the power of sin. We would still have the nature of a sinner and it would only be a matter of time before we would fall again. We would constantly fall under its power and be in con- stant need of forgiveness. Of course this forgiveness would never be withheld by the Lord but we could never be new creatures or be born anew or partake of His divine nature while standing in His righteousness. We would always be sinners who were being saved by grace. The thing we must consider and see is that Jesus did not just die for our sins. No! no! no!, He became sin. He did not become sins. He became sin itself. This is the glorious truth and foundation of the new creation.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor.5:21)
Because Jesus became sin on the cross and then died as sin, it meant He took sin away forever. He did not just take sins away. He took sin away forever. In Christ where God our father has placed us there is no such thing as sin. It is gone. The difference is immeasurable and the power of it is also immeasurable. The glorious truth of this is that we could now be birthed as new creatures and be made the righteousness of God. Because He became sin we were not just given the righteousness as a gift but rather we became the righteousness of God. This indeed is an unspeakable gift. If you have come to faith in Christ you are not becoming a new creature, you are a new creature. You were born again as one.
This is what it means to have the mind of Christ. The scripture is very clear on this point. We have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:16). We do not have the mind of a sinner being saved. That would be a mind with the consciousness of sins. The carnal mind has been crucified with us and no longer exists. The mind of Christ is the mind of the new creation and Christ is the new crea- tion of God. The mind of Christ belongs to those who stand in the righteousness of Christ with no other mindset. The righteousness of God which Christ walked in and perfected is now ours. Hallelujah!
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (Heb.10:10,14)
We have been made new creations by one offering once for all forever. It takes my breath away. Glory to God. This is something we must lay hold of and keep hold of. The thief comes to steal what Christ has given to us freely. We keep hold of it by standing in it before God and men, and making a good confession. We must testify to what we know and to what we have seen in the Spirit. The Spirit of God will bear witness to us as we stand against all opposition.
When was the last time we looked at a butterfly and said “look there is a caterpillar with wings” probably never. Every time we see a butterfly we call it a butterfly. Why then would we call ourselves sinners being saved by grace? Just as surely as the caterpillar has died to release the butterfly so we have died to release the new creation. Those of us who are born again are new creatures with the divine nature of God. We do not have two natures, we have one nature which is divine just as the butterfly has the nature of a butterfly.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (Heb. 10:23; 3:1; 4:14) AMEN.
In His Love, Noel Tuite
www.ekklesiadrogheda.com 