AT a little meeting near S-, a beautiful answer was given by one who, that night, had believed the record that God gave of His Son. When asked if she had peace with God, she said, “Yes." It was so, indeed. "Jesus died to take me out of the old creation and put me into the new." And what did such an answer mean? Can you see any connection between deliverance out of the old creation, &c., and peace with God? My fellow-sinner, if you belong to the old creation-if you are still as you always were-as you were born into this world, a child of Adam,-you are at war with God. Speak not of peace; no terms can be made with you: you are on the enemy's ground. Nay, you are even now under the judgment of God, which must shortly overwhelm you.
For the Lord Jesus Christ, God's well-beloved Son, endured that judgment on the cross; and from the hour of His death, the whole scene to which you belong, which is your home, has lain under the judgment of God. God is not trying you to see if you will improve-as if any good can be got out of you. It is too late to think of improvement. Previous to the cross God gave man plenty of opportunity for improvement: But all in vain. There is an end to that now. And in the death of the Lord Jesus, God has forever closed up in judgment the history of the first Adam and his race. Do you think that if you had one more chance, you would make better use of it than your fathers did? Poor dupe of Satan! Is your understanding so darkened by the mists of the bottomless pit that you would plead for an opportunity of fitting yourself for God, when at this very moment you are despising the blood of His Son? Yes, you are doing what Cain did in an earlier day-refusing to bow to God's sentence on you, and offering Him the fruit of a nature He has judged.
But there is a new creation. |iI| see Him in whose death the history of the first was closed, rising from the dead on the third day, and communicating that life with which He rose to others. Ah this then is a life beyond death, beyond judgment,-a life that can be, touched by neither. It does not belong to the children of Adam. It has no connection with the old creation. It is life in the Son of God. Sin does not attach to it, nor penalty for sin. Sin had suffered its judgment, had been put away before you or I could share this life. Behold, I set before you this day life or death, blessing or cursing; death and cursing if you abide in the old creation-life and blessing in the new creation. For "this is the record that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.-He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Now you can understand how, being delivered from the old creation, you have peace with God. The old creation lies under His wrath. The new creation is life in His Son. The old creation is Satan's dominion. There is no salvation out of the new. But “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new." Oh, I beseech you, consider where you are. To which do you belong? Now God is preaching deliverance- soon, if you despise His message, you shall be forever shut up to Satan, Oh, reject not the love that led Him to give His Son for you, in the hopelessness of your condition. Bow to His judgment upon all that you are, and accept life in His Son.