2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. is — I. A CHANGE. 1. A real change; from nature to grace, as well as by grace. 2. A common change to all the children of God. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 3. A change quite contrary to the former frame. What more contrary to light than darkness? (Ephesians 5:8); flesh to spirit (John 3:6); translation from one kingdom to another (Colossians 1:13). 4. A universal change of the whole man, It is a new creature, not only a new power or new faculty. Understanding, will, conscience, affections, all were corrupted by sin, all are renewed by grace. 5. Principally an inward change. It is as inward as the soul itself. It is a clean heart David desires, not only clean hands (Psalm 51:10). If it were not so, there could be no outward rectified change. The spring and wheels of the clock must be mended before the hand of the dial will stand right. II. A VITAL PRINCIPLE. This new creation is a translation from death to life (1 John 3:14). It is not, then, a gilding, but a quickening; not a carving, but an enlivening. III. A HABIT. It is impossible to conceive a new creature without new habits. Nothing can be changed from a state of corruption to a state of purity without them. IV. A LAW PUT INTO THE HEART. Every creature hath a law belonging to its nature. Man hath a law of reason, beasts a law of sense and instinct, plants a law of vegetation, inanimate creatures a law of motion. A new creature hath a law put into his heart (Jeremiah 31:23; cf. Hebrews 8:10). It is called the "law of the mind" (Romans 7:23), it beginning first in the illumination of that faculty as sin began first in a false judgment made of the precept of God, "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." It consists in an inward conformity of the heart to the law. The soul hath a likeness to the word and doctrine of the gospel within it (Romans 6:17). As melted metal poured into a mould loses its former form, and puts on a new shape, the same figure with the mould into which it is poured; the soul, which before was a servant of sin, and had the image of the law of sin, being melted by the Spirit, is cast into the figure and form of the law. V. A LIKENESS TO GOD. Every creature hath a likeness to something or other in the rank of beings: the new creature is framed according to the most exact pattern, even God Himself. The new creature is begotten; begotten, then, in the likeness of the begetter, which is God. Were not a real likeness attainable, why should those exhortations be, of being "holy as God is holy, pure as He is pure"? (1 Peter 1:15; 1 John 3:3). (S. Charnock, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. |
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