The identikit of the new creature in Christ

Introduction

We are living in a strategic in-between moment. A few weeks ago, we celebrated Easter, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a few weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost, the outpouring of God's Spirit upon the Church. Between these two moments, there are fifty days during which God accomplishes what he had promised for centuries: to bring forth a new creature equipped to live and to reign with Christ. This new creature is you. But are you aware of what you are? Jerry Yeboue-Kouame Cox offers you a simple exercise: to draw together the identikit of the new creature in Christ, so that you can recognize it in your own life.

Message Outline

1.The new creature is born of a new covenant with God

The prophet Jeremiah announces a new covenant, radically different from the one sealed with Moses on Mount Sinai. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews confirms that if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to replace it. The fault was not on God's side, but on man's side, who could not honor the covenant.
Jesus comes to fulfill this new covenant and seal it with his blood. At the Last Supper, he says: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."
This covenant is unique: in an employment contract, your employer does not come do your work for you. In a mortgage, the bank does not pay your monthly installments. But God not only does his part, he also comes to help you do yours. He gives you the ability to be what he expects of you.
The covenant does not rest on your ability to do your part, it rests on the person of God. And God does not change: in him there is no variation or shadow of turning. Therefore there is no more excellent covenant than the one we have with him.
But all these advantages can make us so familiar with grace that we forget our commitments. From Genesis to Revelation, every covenant of God comes down to this formula: "I will be your God and you will be my people." God asks only one thing of you: exclusivity. That is why the covenant is compared to a marriage, and why in the Old Testament, when the people began to worship other gods, the Lord spoke of adultery or prostitution.
The question to ask yourself: are you living in a way that is worthy of the covenant you have? Malachi reports these words from the Father: "If I am your father, where is the honor due to me?"

2.The new creature draws its identity from its sonship and positions itself differently

When Paul speaks of new creation, he uses the Greek word kainos which designates something new in the sense of superior in quality. In the Gospel of Mark, when the crowds exclaim "What is this new teaching?", they are not talking about a recent teaching, but about one superior to everything they had been taught before.
The new creature is therefore superior to the old one just as Jesus is superior to Adam. Consequently, it cannot go back down to live at the level of the old one. It cannot be better in quality and continue to live in the things of the old.
Paul uses the image of the soldier in 2 Timothy: "No soldier going to war entangles himself with the affairs of civilian life, if he wants to please the one who enlisted him." It is not that civilian life is bad in itself. But imagine a soldier who lives and thinks like a civilian, and who one day finds himself on the battlefield: he is not equipped to fight. He may be equipped to go to work in the morning, but not for war.
We still fight far too often for things that end up destroying us or distancing us from God. Many of us are ready to put more effort into a promotion at work than into spending time with God. We can work hours to impress a manager, but we no longer have twenty minutes of silence to devote to his presence.
Jerry mentions the man born blind in John 9. Jesus heals him, and the religious authorities bombard him with questions: where does Jesus come from, what is his doctrinal position, which theological school does he belong to? The man answers them with magnificent simplicity: "I don't know where he comes from, I don't know if he is left or right, I don't know which school of thought he belongs to. All I know is that before, I was blind, and now I see." Seek that mindset of a simple heart that wants to live the new life Jesus offers you, free from social codes and approvals.

3.The new creature has received a new heart and is led by the Spirit

There is nothing in the natural heart of man that makes him capable of desiring God's law. As long as this law remains a foreign rule imposed upon him, he will not succeed, because he has developed what the Bible calls a heart of stone. God therefore announces that he will put his law in man's heart, so that obedience is no longer an external constraint but an internal desire.
Jerry offers the analogy of the pig: imagine a pig you have washed and perfumed. What is the first thing it will do? Go right back and throw itself in the mud. It is not its fault, it is its nature. It was therefore useless to wash us from the outside without changing our nature, because we would have returned to our old ways. God's strategy is for the pig to become allergic to the mud.
Ezekiel announces it: "I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from their body and give them a heart of flesh." The heart of stone is not an evil heart: it is a heart that has become insensitive to what God says, filled with concerns that no longer have affinity with the things of God.
Question to ask yourself: could it be that you have become insensitive to God's voice without realizing it? When was the last time you heard the Holy Spirit speak to you? When did he give you an instruction, a direction, a word for someone around you?
We live in a Christian culture that has relegated the Holy Spirit to a bizarre phenomenon reserved for special people. Yet God declares through Joel that he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. Removing the Holy Spirit from the equation is the spiritual death of the new creature. If you are being led, it means someone else is leading. If you are the one leading, you are no longer being led.
Three simple rules with the Holy Spirit: he reveals himself to those who seek him; when he speaks, be quick to obey, because disobedience blocks the communication channel; your body is his temple, honor it. Do these three things, and the Holy Spirit will be your best friend.

Key Takeaways

You are in a covenant with God that does not rest on your ability to keep your part, but on the person of God who comes to help you do yours.
God does not ask you for perfection, but for exclusivity: "I will be your God and you will be my people."
The new creature is superior to the old one just as Jesus is superior to Adam. It cannot remain at the level of the old.
Do not entangle yourself with the affairs of civilian life: be a soldier equipped for battle, not a civilian on a battlefield.
Without the Holy Spirit active in your life, the new creature slowly dies. Seek him, obey him, honor him.

Personal Application

Does your life today honor the exclusivity that God expects of you, or are you trying to be in covenant with God and at the same time with other ways of living from the world?
On which subjects do you still adopt the ways of thinking, succeeding, managing your marriage or your finances from peoples who do not know God?
Do you still aspire to fast, to pray more, to share the Gospel because your heart is heavy seeing the people around you getting lost?
When was the last time the Holy Spirit spoke to you? Are you leading your life all by yourself, or on the leftovers of a word you heard months ago?
Are you ready to consider yourself dead to sin, to break the cycles of starting over and to walk differently during the days leading up to Pentecost?

Cited Verses

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to "be a new creature in Christ"?

Being a new creature is not just saying that God has "reset the counters to zero." The Greek word kainos used by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17 designates something new in the sense of superior in quality. The new creature is born of a new covenant, draws its identity from its sonship with God, and is inhabited by the Holy Spirit. It is superior to the old one just as Jesus is superior to Adam, and can therefore no longer be content to live at the level of the old.

Why does God compare the covenant to a marriage?

Because the covenant demands exclusivity. Technically, you cannot be married to two people at once. God does not ask you for perfection, but that there be no other lords in your life. That is why, in the Old Testament, when the people began to worship other gods, the Lord did not simply speak of disobedience but of adultery or prostitution: breaking the exclusivity of the covenant was the equivalent of cheating on your spouse.

How can I know if the Holy Spirit is still leading me?

Ask yourself this question: when was the last time the Holy Spirit spoke to you? Gave you an instruction, a direction, a word for someone around you? If it was too long ago, you may be leading your life on your own, or on the leftovers of what you heard months ago. Three rules get the relationship back on track: the Holy Spirit reveals himself to those who seek him, be quick to obey him when he speaks, and honor him with your body which is his temple.

to take notes and ask questions.