T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 4

"There is a New Creation"

"Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for He that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" Rom. 6:3-8.

"In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead... If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances... If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory" Col. 2:11,12,20; 3:1,3,4.

"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation" 2 Cor. 5:17,18.

Now I believe that I am led on to this somewhat familiar ground, to make a simple presentation of the foundations of the life of the believer, and it is this phrase out of which all else comes: "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation (marg.)"; not merely: "he is a new creature", that is hardly adequate, but: "there is a new creation"; that reaches beyond the man and embraces a very great deal more.

Of course it is no new thought or idea that what we have at the beginning of the book of Genesis is a type or illustration of this new creation in Christ; or, to put it the other way, that the new creation in Christ is spiritually what the old was materially. Very often what takes place in the new creation in Christ, that is, when a man or woman is regenerated and born anew, has been illustrated from the story of the creation in the book of Genesis, and that is nothing new to us. But I do feel very strongly that that is truer and more fully so than has been recognised. What I mean is that the Old Testament story of the creation has in it a very great deal more as illustrating the New Testament presentation of new creation than has been generally seen, that it goes a very great deal further than we have recognised. The weakness is in the failure to recognise the comprehensiveness of this truth and, of course, the essential implications of it. And it is concerning the greater fulness and deeper implications of this thing that we are to be occupied for a little while although not attempting to go very far with it to try and exhaust it, but to reduce it to a few basic factors which must of necessity be taken account of.

Now here, amongst other New Testament Scriptures, the word "new" is used, and in this case it is connected with a creation: "there is a new creation". Now to be very simple indeed, the first thing that has to be taken account of is the fact of the necessity for such. If there is a new creation brought about by God in Christ, then we may take it for granted that such is a necessity. "Well", you say, "there is not very much profundity about that"; but you have to begin at the beginning. And if only we did but see it, a very large proportion of our trouble is because we have not recognised that simple fact: the necessity for a new creation. We may put that in another way which is the implication of it, and that is that the old creation has entirely broken down and failed, making for this necessity that there shall be a new creation. The old has failed, and it always will fail; it will never be any more successful than it has been. Man may have his knowledge increased, he may become very clever, very wise. He may do many wonderful things, but in the realm of relationship with God, the whole creation has broken down and is a failure, and will never be one fragment more successful than it has been, or is.

Now, you and I are all too slow in coming to that very first elementary conclusion. Our trouble is that we are always trying to accomplish something in relation to God by means of the old creation, and we have not accepted fully and finally that "finis" is written over it: failure, wreckage, ruin, uselessness characterises (in the sight of God) that creation to which you and I belong by nature. That is where we begin; therefore the necessity for a new creation.

Following on from that then, we have to see that what has failed and broken down is, in its entirety, set aside by God. It is set aside wholly by God, and the implication of that is that the essential governing principle of that creation is never carried over by God into the new. That which motives the old creation, that which is its driving force and its vital principle, that which energises and actuates its mind, its will, its heart, its spirit, its soul, its body, is to be set aside, is ruled out, and not one bit of that is carried over into the new creation. The mind of the natural man does not come into the new creation, the will of the natural man does not come into the new creation, the heart of the natural man does not come into the new creation; each has got to die in that old creation and be raised with an entirely new vitalizing, energising, motiving, governing, vital principle - a new creation. The reason for this is that the old creation is entirely separated from God, and in that fallen state it never can be reunited with God.