THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Letter to the Galatians
A NEW CREATION ESSENTIAL

"Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, what counts is a new creation."
Galatians 6:15

=====

THERE ARE two parts to our salvation in Christ. Both parts are achieved by Christ's great work for us. The first part is legal and the second part renewal. The first is concerned with our being made to meet all the demands of God's holiness by the imputing of Christ's perfect righteousness to us, the second is new birth by which we are made actually holy and fit for heaven and for God. Both are parts of a whole and you can't receive the one without the other. When God justifies us in Christ he also raises us together with Christ. The Apostle deals with the first part in the previous verse. He deals with the second part in the verse before us.

I am more and more convinced that Christians, even though they believe in being born again, are far from clear as to what it is and what it involves, and there is much confusion and misunderstanding which brings error and problems in the spiritual life. Much false teaching on sanctification and holiness finds its origin in this misunderstanding about new birth. I believe the fault is not so much with the believers but with the preachers in whose mind and understanding this confusion also exists, and this confusion is reflected in their teaching. I hope I may be able to convey a better understanding in this sermon.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HUMANITY

If we are to understand the new creation or new birth, we must first understand clearly the natural human condition in this world. The truth is that we are all born spiritually dead by natural birth with all this means in defilement and alienation from God. This may seem a contradiction when a new born healthy baby is so much alive, and that life is so wonderful.

We have to go back to the truth proclaimed in Genesis chapter three, which is known theologically as the fall of mankind. When Adam sinned a real punishment was inflicted by God on Adam and through him on all his posterity, which is the rest of humanity. Adam really died. Humanity also inherits that death from Adam. This death is the removal of that life which God originally gave Adam which gave him and Eve communion with God, and dwelling in the holiness of paradise. The moment Adam received death this was lost to him. It was physically shown by him being expelled from the Garden of Eden, but it had happened the moment he sinned, when the beauty and blessing of that paradise was taken away. He and Eve neither felt or saw it any more. They had lost the life within that was divine and heavenly, and from that time humanity had no ability to enjoy God or know God unless God in grace made himself known. They saw now in God's face the face of a judge who condemned.

The other thing to notice in this Genesis narrative is the fact that a new principle had entered the life of humanity. Adam and Eve, we read, saw that they were naked. They now knew lust and sinful desire. This revealed the new sinful nature they had acquired. It was a nature that loved all that was contrary to the purity of God. They still knew with the mind and conscience what God required, and this warred against the new nature of evil within them, and they desired what was not good.

This is the death that all of us inherit. From the moment we breath physically we are on the road to the final outcome of this death which is hell and separation from God. We can't appreciate God or know him, and we desire that which is evil. We sweat and struggle to teach a child to be good. The child is naughty naturally because that is human nature. If human beings are moral it is a struggle enabled by the common grace of God which is bestowed generally so that the world may not be the hell it would most certainly become if God did not step in to curb natural human nature.

THE NEED OF NEW LIFE

This sentence of death needs to be reversed. We need from God a new birth and a new creation. Because it is life and life that is in the image of God, this life must be given by God. New birth is supernatural. As Jesus told Nicodemus it is birth produced by the Spirit of God. Nor can this life be given until the pristine righteousness before God which Adam had before he sinned is restored.

So we see that the heart of God's work to redeem lies in his providing in Christ a perfect righteousness which meets all his demands, and which is then bestowed as a gift on the sinner. So before new birth was possible Christ must live perfectly for us, and then in his death bear the guilt of the sins we have committed. It is because of this legal work which brings about free and total justification, God can restore to the believer the life which Adam lost.

The process is all one, for in the dying Jesus took into himself all the elect of God. We were united to him and in him when he died. The death he died was our death. Thus the Adamic person of the believer died eternally on the cross. This dealt with the problem of our sin, but the punishment of death still remained to be removed. The elect needed to have a resurrection. Thus Paul tells us in Romans 6 that being united to Christ in his death means that we are also united to him in his resurrection. When Jesus rose to resurrection life all the elect of God were in him, and a new person of each was raised and made alive. It was not the old person, for the old person was dead. It was a new birth and a new creation, thus a new person, but identified with the original person by real identity.

It was not enough for God to account us righteous through the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. What we need for full redemption is to be created people who are fit to dwell with God and walk with God. This is what God has done in new birth. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that we are created to be like God, in righteousness and true holiness. The new creation that we are is entirely holy and without sin, undefiled and fit for God and heaven. We have not worked this. It has been a creation and gift of life from God. This new life can't be defiled and can't be lost. It is eternal. Because we have this life, God dwells within us by his Spirit. This would not be possible if there was any defilement in our new creation. By this new life we can appreciate and experience spiritual the heavenly realm.

This redemption, justification and new birth, which was in Christ on the cross, becomes a reality in our lives when God calls us by his sovereign grace and we repent and believe. This is the principle of holiness within us that cannot be denied.

What Christians do not seem to realise is that this new life, while we remain on this earth, can only express itself through the sinful flesh, which is our earthly body. This flesh is not redeemed and can never be redeemed. We therefore long for our full redemption which comes when we leave this earth, and our sinful bodies die, and we receive our new holy resurrection body. Our flesh in this life is still as sinful as it ever was. It still has only one desire and that is to rebel against God. It can do no other thing. Thus the believer finds a conflict within which Paul has already spoken of in the Galatian letter in chapter 5 and verse 17. This conflict never ceases in this life, but because of our holy new creation, our real person, we can't let the flesh have a free hand and we have to mortify the flesh. By this our lives and living in this life shows more of the new life within us, and the image of God which is now our life through new birth.

Because our flesh remains sinful, we can never know freedom from sin in our lives and living in this life, we can only know improvement. There are times, therefore, in moments of weakness, when sin can overcome us, and does it grievously. The attitude of many Christians to such failure is often condemnation and rejection of the believer concerned. This is entirely inappropriate and unChristlike. It is wrong and a grievous sin. Paul in this letter has already taught the true way. In chapter 6 and verse one he tells us that in such failure the sinning believer must be restored, and restored gently.

THE FUTILITY OF OUTWARD RELIGION

There is always the fatal tendency in human wisdom to add to the gospel of Christ. There are reasons for this. Human nature finds it very difficult to humble itself totally and realise that all human effort is futile to make ourselves right with God. We like to hold on to a vestige of our pride. Then there is the urge to be doing something, for when we are doing we feel progress is being made. When we can't do anything we feel so helpless. Then there is the problem that so often we see so small advance in spirituality and feel we need to hurry things along, and so we resort to our own effort. Then deep in our consciousness the old covenant of works urges us to action, and we forget that our duty to be perfect can't atone for past sin, even if we could be perfect in the future.

Moral living, good works, religious worship and duty, of which circumcision is an example, are often right and good. There is no doubt we are meant to live holy lives, but nothing we do can achieve our salvation. Circumcision is one of those religious duties we perform believing that they buy favour from God. In the church today, the sacraments have been placed in the same position in which circumcision was being pressed in the Galatian church. However, as far as our standing before God is concerned it does not matter whether we do these things or not. They can't give us new life and new life is the only thing that matters.

Religious duties can't return to us the pure fellowship with God which Adam lost. They can't raise us from the dead. Only God can do this through the merits of Christ worked for us. We must rest in Christ alone and receive forgiveness and new life freely, without cost.

This is not to say that the sacraments do not have value, but their value is not to obtain salvation for us, but for the purpose of assuring us of the salvation that we have in Christ. Baptism does not bestow forgiveness of sins, whether original or actual. It is simply God's seal to us that salvation can be obtained free through faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord; that is, faith in what he has done for us. Holy Communion is not a sacrifice for sin, nor is it an offering to God to gain favour. It is simply Christ reminding us in a lively fashion of what he has done for us on the cross, and bringing powerfully to our hearts and minds the wonderful blessings of the cross. In this remembrance, Christ is present by his Spirit, and experience tells us that Christ comes to us when we attend the sacrament to assure us of some benefit of Christ's work for us, which we particularly need at that particular time. Thus Holy Communion is a realisation and deeper appropriation of the one sacrifice of Christ for us by a spiritual remembrance.

Christ is present at the sacrament spiritually and not localised in the elements. Like at the institution of the Holy Communion he is the host giving the symbols of his body given in death for us, and the one officiating at the sacrament is his servant to distribute the bread and the wine. Christ opens the heart and mind of the one who comes in faith to feel and understand the blessing of his work in dying for us. He applies it to our heart and mind in that particular way which meets our present need.

Circumcision was useless, as are all religious duties we do, to gain favour with God. They clean the outside, but can do nothing for the inner person. Only being born again cleans the whole person and makes us fit for God. New birth is not possible without the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us, so that we are just in God's estimation.

CONCLUSION

Thus the only thing that is important is that we have new life, a new creation, from God. We must be born again. We can only receive this by faith, when in humble repentance, relying only on the mercy and grace of God, we come to the Saviour and plead that he will save us. The wonderful truth is that those who come to him he will never cast out. Further, throughout our lives there is no other position we can take than humble suppliants before God for his mercy. There is no time when we are not totally dependent on the mercy of God in Christ.