The second text sets forth a possibility of entire individual renewal,
and does so by a strong metaphor.
'If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,' or as the words might
be rendered, 'there is a new creation,' and not only is he renewed, but
all things are become new. He is a new Adam in a new world.
Now (a) let us beware of exaggeration about this matter. There are
often things said about the effects of conversion which are very far in
advance of reality, and give a handle to caricature. The great law of
continuity runs on through the change of conversion. Take a man who has
been the slave of some sin. The evil will not cease to tempt, nor will
the effects of the past on character be annihilated. 'Whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap,' remains true. In many ways there will
be permanent consequences. There will remain the scars of old wounds;
old sores will be ready to burst forth afresh. The great outlines of
character do remain.
(b) What is the condition of renewal?
'If any man be in Christ'--how distinctly that implies something more
than human in Paul's conception of Christ. It implies personal union
with Him, so that He is the very element or atmosphere in which we
live. And that union is brought about by faith in Him.
(c) How does such a state of union with Christ make a man over again?
It gives a new aim and centre for our lives. Then we live not unto
ourselves; then everything is different and looks so, for the centre is
shifted. That union introduces a constant reference to Him and
contemplation of His death for us, it leads to self-abnegation.
It puts all life under the influence of a new love. 'The love of Christ
constraineth.' As is a man's love, so is his life. The mightiest
devolution is to excite a new love, by which old loves and tastes are
expelled. 'A new affection' has 'expulsive power,' as the new sap
rising in the springtime pushes off the lingering withered leaves. So
union with Him meets the difficulty arising from inclination still
hankering after evil. It lifts life into a higher level where the
noxious creatures that were proper to the swamps cannot live. The new
love gives a new and mighty motive for obedience.
That union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. 'All
died.' The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by
the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if
what has been must be--an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to
former self.
That union brings a new divine power to work in us. 'I live, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me.'
It sets us in a new world which yet is the old. All things are changed
if we are changed. They are the same old things, but seen in a new
light, used for new purposes, disclosing new relations and powers.
Earth becomes a school and discipline for heaven. The world is
different to a blind man when cured, or to a deaf one,--there are new
sights for the one, new sounds for the other.
All this is true in the measure in which we live in union with Christ.
So no man need despair, nor think, 'I cannot mend now.' You may have
tried and been defeated a thousand times. But still victory is
possible, not without effort and sore conflict, but still possible.
There is hope for all, and hope for ME.