One of the phases of present infidelity is the denial of the truth recorded in the ancient Book of Genesis, that in the beginning of this world’s history God made the creatures and things of this present earth complete and perfect after their kind. Instead of tracing their origin to the great Originator, these men affirm that the beginning of the creature was altogether different from its present condition—for example, that the power and wisdom of the dog is due not to the direct workmanship of the Almighty and All-wise Creator, but to a long process of change and development effected in the creature itself.
Christian people smile or shudder at the fancies of these men, who, since they have no proofs to offer, save their own wisdom, must in justice be termed speculators! But is it not the fact that in things spiritual the belief of many Christians bears at least a resemblance to these infidel ideas which deny the Creator the complete and perfect character of His workmanship?
That Christian or professor assails the glory of God in His work of the new creation, who, instead of bowing to and owning the completeness and perfection of God’s work, looks into himself to produce or evolve out of himself the “new man,” of which alone God can say it is “very good.” The word of God declares that if a man be in Christ there is a new creation, and that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (See 2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) and Eph. 2:1010For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10).)
The creature cannot create. Man may educate, improve, reform, but he cannot make a new thing. “Behold, I make all things new,” is God’s prerogative. Every true Christian is a new man in Christ Jesus; he is God’s workmanship, and as such a perfect work. When the Creator at the first, made man, He formed a perfect creature, and this is God’s way now. God begins with perfection—with “in Christ Jesus.” We do not mean perfection in the sense of full growth, full knowledge, wisdom, or practical behavior, but as a bird or a babe is perfect, wanting nothing. God does not make half stones or half trees—whatever He makes is perfect! Neither does He form men half Christian, and leave to the half-made Christian the work of completing and perfecting himself! Yet, alas! how many are there really practically expecting by their good behavior or pious feelings to succeed in rendering themselves perfect and entire Christians! Either they do their best and trust in God to do the rest; or they look to God for the beginning and to themselves for the completion of the work. God is not thus honored as the mighty Worker who, in infinite grace and wisdom, takes up the sinner dead in sins, pardons and cleanses, confers a new and eternal life, and forms him a new creation in Christ Jesus. Surely there is a want in our souls respecting this marvelous fact of the new creation A man is a Christian, a pardoned sinner, a new creation in Christ, or not a Christian, not a pardoned sinner, still of the old. Such a being as a half Christian exists not. Even in the natural creation we see not upon a tree a fruit half apple, half plum.
A new creation means what it says. That which is really and actually new. It is not a mere figure of speech. It does not signify the old, reformed or restored, but that which, until God wrought, was not. We are created anew in Christ Jesus. Christ is the head of this creation of which we now speak, and its head as risen from the dead. Not before, but after His death its head. No power of man can reach beyond the grave to the resurrection ground. God alone can link man on earth with His Son in heaven. All that man is comes to its end in death, and, in Christ’s resurrection, all that a Christian is begins.
Upon the cross the Lord made atonement for us, but the virtues of His sacrificial work flow to us from Himself risen. A Christian belongs to that where Christ is. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:33For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3).) The work of God in pardoning a sinner is perfect. There is no revocation of the gracious word for time or eternity. He who believes on the Son of God’s love receives then and there forgiveness. So with the work of God in putting us, who believe, in Christ Jesus—it is a complete work. By faith we enter upon the enjoyment of its blessings, but, whether we fully believe or not, the fact remains, concerning such as believe, that God has created them anew in Christ Jesus.
In the creation around us everything, however small, has been made to fulfill some definite end. It is not the mighty heavens alone which declare the glory of God. And in the new creation the weakest of God’s people is made for a purpose. There are good works appointed for him to accomplish. He is left upon earth to fulfill an object. Even man does not make an engine to do nothing.
But the engine must be made before it can do its work. God has laid cut the line, the path, for each of His. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
H. F. W.