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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Chapter 5 If Any Man Be In Christ He Is A New Creature (2 Corinthians 5.17).

Here in this verse is the secret of our Christian lives. We must ever recognise as we live our Christian lives that we have been made ‘new creatures’ in Christ. That God has worked a miracle in us through Jesus Christ and made us completely anew. The old has passed away and we have a completely new life. We are no longer what we were. There is a real sense in which we have been made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ and the purpose of this is so that we may escape the corruption and rottenness that is in the world which attacks us through our desires (2 Peter 1.4).

Before we became new creatures, lust held us in its power. We craved earthly things, we craved earthly experiences, we craved earthly satisfaction, we craved earthly advancement. But now that our eyes have become fixed on Christ earthly things should seem unimportant. We can say with the hymnwriter, ‘Heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter green, something lives in every hue, that Christless eyes have never seen.’ We have begun to crave heavenly things. Our desire is to do His will. Yet still those earthly cravings do insist on breaking in upon us. What then should we do? Why, says Paul, we must die. We must reckon on the fact that we are dead. Then we must remind ourselves that Christ died for all, so that those who live through His risen life should not from now on live to themselves, but to Him Who died for them and rose again (2 Corinthians 5.15). We must look, not at the things that are seen which are only temporary, but at the things that are unseen which are eternal (2 Corinthians 4.17-18). We must recognise that we are new creatures in Christ.

We must be like Moses and fix our eyes on the recompense of the reward (Hebrews 11.26). Moses had to choose which way he would go. He could have chosen to live as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he could have chosen to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, he could have lived as the favoured one of the greatest king in the world at that time, but he chose rather to serve the heavenly king, he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, because he recognised what would be the end result (Hebrews 11.24-26). He knew that he had to choose between God and sin. And he chose God.

In the same way we must see our past life as dead. We too must turn our backs on the pleasures of sin. We must recognise that in Christ we have died. We must recognise as new creatures, that from now on we must let the risen Christ live through us.

Then while we keep our eyes and our hearts fixed on Him, He will live through us His own life of purity and perfection, and we will be taken up with pleasing Him and doing His will. Nothing else will matter. For we will recognise that we are His, and that we are therefore dead, and our lives are hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3.3). That is why Jesus said that we must say ‘no’ to ourselves and must take up His cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9.23). For the purpose in taking up a cross is in order to die. And for us it must be a deliberate choice. ‘Thus,’ says Jesus, ‘You must daily choose to die, continually, dying to your self, dying to your desires, dying to your own way. And you must allow Me to live through you My own perfect risen life.’ Let a man with dirty overalls find himself invited into a spotlessly clean house and he immediately becomes conscious of his dirt. He is out of place. In the same way if we are hidden in Christ with God (Colossians 3.3) how can we any longer continue in our old ways? It would not be fitting.

What a wonderful life is this. Imagine what it means. We are no longer nonentities. We are no longer unimportant. We have in a sense become the most important people in the world. For we have become God’s own servants, and bearers of His Son. And we will be daily carrying out in the world the purposes of God, as Christ lives out His life through us. We will be daily living the Christ-life. We will be filling the niche that God has for us. We will be His ambassadors calling men to come to Him and be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5.20). We will be bringing Christ to the world. And yet like our Master it will not make us proud, for we will do it in meekness and lowliness of heart (Matthew 11.29). For we will recognise that it is not we who are doing it, but Christ Himself Who is doing it through us.