The New Creation: ‘From Wicket Gate to the River Jordan’

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Romans 8:37.

We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Take your sins to Christ's cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration--you want to overcome an angry temper; how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way. It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust thee to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell him, "Lord, I have trusted thee, and thy name is Jesus, for thou dost save thy people from their sins: Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!" Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears--the whole of them put together--are worth nothing apart from him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;" or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane.” - Spurgeon Devotional.

Out of the hearts of the old spirituals we hear the echoes of ethereal prose. Spurgeon’s quote proclaims faith for salvation as a simultaneous appeal to God’s complete justification and provision for sanctification, and is in itself a declaration of Christ’s absolute victory over the world, flesh and the devil. If I am saved through faith in this magnificent work, then my sin’s defeat is a synchronized affair, inseparable and indistinguishable, though not immediately and fully realized in every area of my living. Notwithstanding it must be understood that no former regime eludes the dethroning reach of Christ’s atonement, nor any sentence of death; the exonerating flow of Christ’s blood applied through faith. All enemies lay at His feet, conquered and pathetically disempowered. Similarly, the overcoming of the flesh could be likened to the June 6^th 1944 landing of Allied troops on a beach in Normandy. Though it was a pivotal turning point of World War 2, the battles didn’t end immediately. Total surrender of all aggressors didn’t occur until September 2, 1945. Despite delayed surrender, defeat was inevitable. The Allied advances served as a deathblow and so defeat was unavoidable. We see this with the cross. In satisfying the just demands of a righteous God, Jesus has struck a fatal blow to sin and death and their dominance over the believer. For those who put their faith in Him, the freedom from the tyranny of sin and death is both immediate and progressive. Charles Spurgeon remarks in a latter writing, “Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes "a new creature" in Christ Jesus. This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways--mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.“

To keep this in perspective, on any given day I rely by faith on the work Christ has wrought on my behalf, and so it is based on this work that my victory over the carnal man is both understood and integrated. I appeal to the cross and through this faith, discover grace - and thus I access this same grace to live the life I have been redeemed to testify of. This New Testament truth is no different than God’s promise to the Israelites regarding possessing the Promised Land, we must venture out in faith and take possession of this vessel based on a promise, a hope and God’s provision. So therefore like Joshua before the inhabitants of the land, I precede forth in faith, procuring the land of my soul based on Christ’s procurement of me. My conviction is certain; God will give me the land for it is His good pleasure to do this. (Joshua Chapter One). Oaths have been made, and a covenant struck, between my Lord and He. ”In keeping with [the oath's greater strength and force], Jesus has become the Guarantee of a better (stronger) agreement [a more excellent and more advantageous covenant].” - Hebrews 7:22 Amplified Bible. It is He Who has gone before me. I stand accepting of His work, resting on His word - 2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” - Amplified Bible.

But just as supplies, discipline and morale had to be maintained to propel the Allied forces forward in their objective, we can not in the aftermath of Christ’s complete victory, think to isolate ourselves or operate independently from this vital life source – John 15:4. If it were possible for this to happen, it would certainly be to our peril. We must persevere. Thank the Lord for His covenant and seal; the Holy Spirit, bringing to bear the Word of truth in our lives, producing our conformity into His likeness through faith in Him. 1 John 1:9 & Philippians 1:5,6. And thank the Lord that our trust and hope in Him will not prove vain. Why? Because of the life given and the life attained. Given in atonement and given in resurrection. Salvation incorporated our amnesty; attained through substitution. Resurrection into both everlasting life for the future and deliverance for the present. J. Hampton Keathley, III remarks, this is the contemporary tense of salvation; “It has to do with present deliverance over the reigning power of sin or the carnal nature’s power in the lives of believers. This phase of salvation in Christ is accomplished through the ministry of the indwelling Spirit, but it is based on the work of Christ and the believer’s union and co-identification with Christ in that work.” – “Soteriology - The Doctrine of Salvation”.

Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Transformation, as we experience in our living, is an extension of our continuing journey to both repent and embrace truth, through faith. As the Holy Spirit enables us to discover God in His character and affections, we are brought to the crossroads of conformity. This is nothing short of the renewing of our minds. When we put our faith in His gospel we are renewed and our living begins to reflect this cleansing - Ephesians 5:26. “So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word,” - Amplified Bible. None of this however is an independent work of self; rather, as earlier stated, it is the deliberate, confrontational interaction of the Holy Spirit in our lives, conforming us onto His image, revealing Christ through the Word.

“An obedient walk is not the cause of our salvation; it is the effect of the quickening of the Spirit and His working salvation in the soul.” - Gospel Chapel Christian Daily Devotional.

We continue to experience the regenerate power of the cross through faith in Christ’s finished work: “For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue). By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.” - 2 Peter 1:3, 4 Amplified Bible.

Whose nature are we partakers of? The nature of the sinless life of the Atoner, whose foot laid upon the neck of our sin. Whose blood it was that spilt upon the ground crying better things than Abel’s blood – Hebrews 12:24. “Life is in the blood” – Genesis 9:4 & Deuteronomy 12:23, and it was His infinite, sinless life contained in this blood that made propitiation for me – Romans 3:24,25 ESV. Redeeming me at the cost of His own sinless life.

Note Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Peter 1:3-4 in the Amplified Bible; “The promised blessings of the gospel are very precious; as the great promise of the Old Testament was the Seed of the woman, the Messiah (Heb. 11:39), so the great promise of the New Testament is the Holy Ghost (Luke 24:49), and how precious must the enlivening, enlightening, sanctifying Spirit be! [3.] Those who receive the promises of the gospel partake of the divine nature. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind, after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; their hearts are set for God and his service; they have a divine temper and disposition of soul; though the law is the ministration of death, and the letter killeth, yet the gospel is the ministration of life, and the Spirit quickeneth those who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. [4.] Those in whom the Spirit works the divine nature are freed from the bondage of corruption. Those who are, by the Spirit of grace, renewed in the spirit of their mind, are translated into the liberty of the children of God; for it is the world in which corruption reigns. Those who are not of the Father, but of the world, are under the power of sin; the world lies in wickedness, 1 John 5:19. And the dominion that sin has in the men of the world is through lust; their desires are to it, and therefore it rules over them. The dominion that sin has over us is according to the delight we have in it.” Well then, with all this being true, what does my struggle reveal about my delight? That is a revealing question. How do I overcome myself?

Same faith, same victory: Christ died some 2000 years ago, yet for us His shed blood by comparison, only most recently has effected your life redeemed, your citizenship translated, your body a temple, your righteousness completed, and yes your sanctification mobilized. Faith in a ‘finished’ work no less – John 19:30. A complete atonement is what we profess. We gained access to this gift of grace through faith so Romans 4:16, 5:2 & 7:24,25 declares. Christ’s death has absorbed our condemnation satisfying God’s justice, and so, as it were, we were crucified in Him, freeing us from the consequence of the law. However this is only a part of what our Saviors’ death accomplished. Forgiven, but not left in our deathly state, we were raised up in Him upon His resurrection, into a life imputed to us equally as the forgiveness we were accredited. Justified by His sacrifice and indwelt by His Spirit, we are free from the rule of sin – Romans 6:18.

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” - 1 Corinthians 15:55.

But victory over sinful habits is realized within the context of pursuing and discovering Him, and this not of ourselves. Titus 1:1, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,” Knowledge about God doesn’t act like some magic formula to transform me, not at all, religious knowledge tends to puff up our pride. It is a mystical bond between us and Christ. The Holy Spirit activates and accelerates Christ’s life in us through revelation and grace where we behold His heart through the light of His Word, through intercession and godly meditation, and through our humble obedience and godly directed servanthood. For these to be effective in our lives, it necessitates that our relating to Him be vitally personal. It is as we expose our heart to Him our hearts are changed, shaped and freed from previous ideals, perceptions and values. So it is that our flesh than experiences mortification as our spirit is edified and elevated through the Word. Like a light that shines when connected to electricity, so we emit His life as we keep our living “in” Him. John 15:4-7. Some might argue that a true convert can’t escape this work of grace and the transformation His light affords. But one can not avoid the challenge ignorance brings to an undiscipled soul who does not seek out the light of God’s Word. One should ask, how great is that light in our life?

It has become my experience that my faith and sanctification grow in concert with each other. As my revelation of Jesus grows so does my understanding of His truth, and consequently, my faith. And as I understand His truth and recognize His authority, I willingly surrender to His Lordship. I surrender to these truths and through practice I see the power of sin defeated - so I conquer. My sanctifications’ progression is nothing short of the renewing of my mind and a enlivening of my heart for Him, altering my practices out of hope, faith and love; the greater being love. I simply apply the grace to which the cross has afforded me. But it must be stressed, no amount of will power alone can effect this transformation. The die is cast and Christ alone has brought about in me this exchange of life and living, all via His substitution and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The death and defeat that sin rendered in my life was engulfed and absorbed by His sacrifice and I became engrafted into Him – into His life. Romans 3:22 declares me the ‘righteousness of God’ by virtue of faith in Christ Jesus. His death rendered me righteous but it is His life in me that renders me victorious. That life stimulated and matured through the intimate workings of His Holy Spirit illuminating the Word to me, convicting me, emancipating and renewing my mind, through the “knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.”

Do I begin to see how overcoming the works of the flesh relates back to the work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice? Do I begin to see how my sanctification is connected to the finished work of Christ? We must look back to the cross and see the flesh dethroned, declawed and defanged before we can expect to lay claim to the spoils; our Promised Land possessed, culminating in the receiving of our glorified bodies. I believe this is the gist of Spurgeon’s affirmation. In this we take great comfort since defeat is all too familiar our experience when we pursue this victory by our own means or resign ourselves to our apparent circumstances, yielding to carnal reasoning that says ‘we can not overcome’.

To be sure, it is a constant work of applying our faith and maintaining our vigilance over the flesh. We abode for now in this imperfect vessel prone to decay. But we do not abide alone nor are we without promise and hope. Where do we appeal? Certainly we cannot appeal to our own righteousness, sacrifice or intentions. We are only presented the cross. For everything else concerning my present and future state, I look back to the cross as my justification and I see its’ atoning sacrifice sanctioning my right of entry into this new life. So it would be consistent for me to look here as well for my triumph over the false claims the sinful nature may make over my present life. And less I forget, the real life of Christ is always with me and in me – John 14:17.

While it is true that the veracity of this victory is upheld by the exercise of our moral free agency unto godliness, the renewing of our mind through the study of Scripture and the mentorship of the Holy Spirit; we must remember that these are at their root extentions of our faith in the cross, and means to galvanize our faith, all resonating out of a work long ago settled in heaven. My victory over this flesh lies not in my strength of will, but in my faith in He Who has rendered the curse of the law moot through the cross. John 1:17; ^“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” - NIV. It is to the work of the atonement I owe this victory over sin, and by its knowledge I am transformed from glory to glory. 2 Peter 1:3; ^“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” - ESV.

Therefore; “It is said to be from faith to faith, from the faithfulness of God revealing to the faith of man receiving (so some); from the faith of dependence upon God, and dealing with him immediately, as Adam before the fall, to the faith of dependence upon a Mediator, and so dealing with God (so others); from the first faith, by which we are put into a justified state, to after faith, by which we live, and are continued in that state: and the faith that justifies us is no less than our taking Christ for our Saviour, and becoming true Christians, according to the tenour of the baptismal covenant; from faith engrafting us into Christ, to faith deriving virtue from him as our root: both implied in the next words, The just shall live by faith. Just by faith, there is faith justifying us; live by faith, there is faith maintaining us; and so there is a righteousness from faith to faith. Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of a Christian life. It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works preserved and maintained us in it, but it is all along from faith to faith, as 2 Cor. 3:18; from glory to glory; it is increasing, continuing, persevering faith, faith pressing forward, and getting ground of unbelief. To show that this is no novel upstart doctrine, he quotes for it that famous scripture in the Old Testament, so often mentioned in the New (Hab. 2:4): The just shall live by faith. Being justified by faith he shall live by it both the life of grace and of glory. The prophet there had placed himself upon the watch-tower, expecting some extraordinary discoveries (Rom. 1:1), and the discovery was of the certainty of the appearance of the promised Messiah in the fullness of time, not withstanding seeming delays. This is there called the vision, by way of eminence, as elsewhere the promise; and while that time is coming, as well as when it has come, the just shall live by faith. Thus is the evangelical righteousness from faith to faith—from Old-Testament faith in a Christ to come to New-Testament faith in a Christ already come.” – Matthew Henry's Commentary.

Further Study:

http://www.annemurchison.com/repentance.htm - “Repentance and Rest” by Anne Murchison.

Romans 1:17 [Habakkuk 2:4] - Matthew Henry's Commentary.

http://evangelicalarminians.org/node/27 - “Is Arminian Theology Synergistic?” by Ben Henshaw.

http://www.gospelchapel.com/Devotions/11_97/devotion_11-22-97.html - “The Fruits of Salvation” by Gospel Chapel Christian Daily Devotional.

http://bible.org/article/soteriology-doctrine-salvation - “Soteriology - The Doctrine of Salvation” By: J. Hampton Keathley, III.