How does it feel?
How did it feel when you received something new? Got your new books for school or University? A new mobile phone? Your Christmas presents? These times may be times when you probably felt the excitement of having something new, new challenges, new opportunities; perhaps new aims in life also. It is like that in our spiritual lives also. As nobody likes to become bored in life, doing the same things over and over again, so too do we need to also keep our spiritual lives invigorated, refreshed and exciting. If we don’t do so, we will likewise become disinterested, bored and lose our love for God and for the means of our salvation. We will lose our love for reading God’s word, attending to prayer, church; lose our interest in the revitalising sacraments of His holy body and blood.
What is the Old Creation?
Before we consider the new creation, it is useful to remind ourselves of the ‘Old Creation’. Old creation relates to creation according to the flesh. So we go back to the man created from dust, the man who fell into sin; the one who is led by his/her bodily weaknesses. Such was the old man who sinned against God, and lost his place in paradise. Why Adam do so, when God had provided everything for him is the very difference between Old and New creation. The Old creation means a person who is still led by lusts, which may be physical lusts, worldly pleasures, lusts of the eyes, etc., or they may be Psychological lusts of selfishness, greed, anger, mental impurity, etc. St John described this Old person as a person ‘of the world’: “For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 Jn 2: 16).
The reason for Christ’s coming
As man was so attached to the world and its lusts, it meant that he was unable to recognize the means to the more elevated life led by God’s spirit. So man lived in a type of darkness, unable to see clearly the things of the spirit: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Cor 2: 14). This is why God had planned to send man a sure source of light to enlighten him from his darkness. Zechariah the priest prophesied about his son, St John the Baptist, as providing a glimpse of this light as he gave the message of salvation to prepare the hearts of the people to receive the Christ: “ And you child will be called the prophet of the highest….To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1: 76-79). But all this was merely to give way to the true source of light, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who came to open our eyes and turn us from the darkness: “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (Jn 12: 46).
Importance of opening our eyes
If Christ came to open our eyes to the ways of truths, this doesn’t mean that He will exert His own will on us to open our eyes. We do have a part to play in having eyes which are prepared to be opened. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 6:22 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” What did He mean: ‘If your eye is good?” Here Jesus means you need to be …Sincere…You WANT Jesus to open your eyes. We see an example of this when Jesus was walking past two blind men who were shouting: “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him” (Mat 20: 30-32). What is relevant in this story is that Jesus wanted to see what they were really after. He is waiting for us to give Him the go-ahead to open our eyes. How lovely is our lord who deals with us according to our will and gives us an opportunity to express our faith in Him through our requests to Him!
A True Christian
If you claim to be a Christian, you have to ask yourself 2 questions in relation to this subject:
1. Do I believe in Christ? “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness”.
2. Do I keep His teachings? “Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn 12: 46).
3. Am I a new creation, or am I still a person of the flesh? St Paul says: “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” ( 2 Cor 5: 16).
4. Have I willingly opened my eyes ? “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph 5:8).
What if a person is still an Old creation?
So who is still an ‘Old Creation’? The person who STILL lives in sin, carrying bodily weaknesses, unwilling to allow Christ to open their eyes; a person who, by choice lives in darkness.
The Bible warns us of condemnation if we should disregard Christ’s gift of life in the light:
“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”(Jn 3:19).
Jesus says these people will be cast out into outer darkness: “But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mat 8: 12). Hence their end is what they have chosen for themselves- To be cast into outer darkness.
The role of the Holy Spirit
Jesus said that to be born in the spirit, you need to be baptized with water and the Spirit (Jn 3: 5). We receive this spiritual rebirth in baptism. So the Holy Spirit is working in us, guiding us to a life of truth by virtue of our baptism (see Jn 16: 14 ). How then do we explain the fact that some still do sin? Obviously the Holy Spirit does not lead us to sin. Rather it can be likened to a bird which has fallen into mud. In the spirit we are free and can fly like the bird; but when we sin the mud sticks, and we cannot easily fly and be led by God’s Spirit. We don’t lose our nature of being the bird that has the ability to fly. It is just that we deprive ourselves of this ability. So let’s not become burdened with sins, but live in the spirit, as described by Isaiah the prophet, who said: “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint” (Is 40: 31).
