Q4. The New Creation

[JoanG]

The new creation is characterized by the Holy Spirit that dwells in its heart and soul. The old creation is a group of people that were cut and lived by the law. These people lack the spirit. The new creation needs to go through a new acceptance for their salvation. They are given a new identity. They are given a new purpose in life.

[lighthouse2014]

Q4. (Galatians 6:15) What characterizes this “new creation” that Paul talks about? What does the “old creation” look like in contrast? What does the old creation lack that the new creation possesses? How does Jesus’ saying, “You must be born again” (John 3:3-8) relate to this concept of the new creation?

Galatians 6:15 the thing that characterizes this "new creation" that Paul talks about is that circumcision or uncircumcision made no difference in the faith in Christ.

The old creation was the belief that following the Mosaic law and circumcision customs was the only way to God, it provided no faith only works through this law. Now Christ the Messiah has come and abolished the law and it's customs. Only through faith in Christ and his works, death and resurrection do we now live forever. It is by faith and being filled with the spirit do we now live not by or through works.

The old creation taught man that he was a sinner and could not provide eternal life because there was no Messiah. The new creation has abolished the law and it's works. Christ has has come to fulfill the law and through his death and resurrection we now living by grace and mercy that God has provided by his son

Jesus statement "we must be born again" relates to the new creation, because we are to be born again not of the flesh but by the word of God and faith in Christ, Thus if we believe in Christ, that he is the only son of God and by his resurrection we are born again and live by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  

[Annie343]

CHARACTERIZES "NEW CREATION"; the life of the future world has begun in believers now; created anew, or born again constitutes the real difference in believers; any person who believe that Jesus Christ died for him shall be saved from the world of death counted as being crucified with Christ; love as demonstrated by God; have a new spirit - a recreated  spirit; God knows who is really sincere and who is not

OLD CREATION LOOKS LIKE: serving by trying to keep the law; attractions to men - position, power, acceptance, recognition, money, sex, pleasure, honor, food. possessions

OLD CREATION AND NEW CREATION POSSESSES: being crucified (don't have to go the way of the world); deliverance by Jesus Christ's death; the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives within believer to give him the power to conquer the lusts of the flesh; the cross brings the peace of God and the mercy of God experiencing forgiveness of sins and the acceptance of God; the cross creates a new man - acceptable to God by way of Jesus Christ (walk by the rule of the cross and of the new creature); lives with God, he has to believe and approach God in the name of Jesus Christ; boast in the cross of Christ; a believer's new position with respect to the world for salvation; rejecting lifestyle and pleasures of the world (no longer attractive to the world)

"YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN" RELATE: being born again is  what matters (the old has gone); believe on Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross; born again by the power of the Holy Spirit; God's divine nature in believer's life (born again spiritually)

[Jonathan Edwards]

According to Colossian 3 10 we are renewed in Christ the New Adam.  We have the true and full knowledge of God; we have sound minds and true knowledge.   We are  not at the whims of Judaizers and other false teachers who don't preach the Cross of Christ.   We treasure the Cross, we proclaim the   necessity of repenting and trusting in Christ as Saviour and sole Mediator.

Old creation is basically self effort.   Depending on good works to merit salvation and adherence to complicated rules to get right with God.   The Kanon as established by Paul is that Redemption is through Jesus apart from circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and all the Law of Moses.  Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to help us to live sanctified lives.   Being born again is essential.  I will never forget what a Baptist pastor told me that warm day back in September 1969 when I mentioned the plethora of Christain denominations: YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.  This is practically forgotten in all these ecumenical discussions and apologetic podcasts. So many caught up in spurious doctrines like the Galatians,  they miss the Kerygma of the Acts of the Apostles.  Many in the church world though sincere are full of strife (eritheia)....jangling about heterdox doctrines and heresies.

 

 

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[Krissi]

Perhaps the 17th verse explains new creation best -- "... I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." Paul hadn't been physically crucified (yet) so didn't have nail marks on his hands and feet. He must have been referring to something else, some sort of mark that Jesus left on or in him. I believe this mark is the presence of the Holy Spirit who came into Paul as a greater and greater presence as Paul increasingly saw "the world crucified to me."

The old creation is characterized by the old "mark" -- the circumcision of males. Paul HAD been physically marked in this old way but now realizes that the new mark is all that matters. Pastor Ralph wrote that "Paul so identifies with Christ that he sees himself as being crucified ..." with Him. Yes. In a real sense, Paul was crucified internally by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Circumcision, in this letter to the Galatians, was a proxy for the mentality and laws of the Jews.  It's a classic metaphor in that by comparing two very different things (the cutting of the body and the laws of the Old Testament) Paul is claiming they are not just similar but identical!  In Paul words, "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything..."

The law mattered not after Christ had been crucified for now Paul could rightfully claim he bore the marks of Jesus on his body.

So do we. We bear His marks on our body ... on the inside of our bodies.

--

The phrase "born again" isn't in this passage, but the concept is contained in the idea of new creation.