Sep. 27, 2026

A New Creature

Introduction - In  previous weeks I have begun examining what God dies for us and what He expects us to do for ourselves.  This lesson takes that study a bit further in that we will be examining very closely what Jesus did for us in the act of regeneration.  We know He undertook a major sacrifice of his own precious, perfect life in order to keep us from reaping the just reward for our human waywardness - eternal separation from our Creator.  Knowing only that much leads us to conclude  that Jesus did do something to adjust our character when He saved us.  Perhaps He gave us a more sensitive conscience, a less violent disposition, maybe more of a tendency to make new Year’s resolutions.  Whatever He did, many Christians see themselves as people who were once dirty and useless, but then became scrubbed up a bit and made presentable. In their view, we still have most of our earthly shortcomings, but at least we will go to heaven after we endure this earth with all its craziness.  We just have to find a place to live that is relatively crime-free, cheap, and not too cold in winter.  I hope that we can see that Jesus did much more for us than simply giving us a sponge bath when He saved us.  We’ll let the Word speak for itself:

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  KJV 

This verse captures the amazing thing which Jesus did for us when He saved each of us.  We are not just washed or treated to a patch job of our old body, soul, and spirit.  We were made a completely new creature.  To illustrate this graphically, let me take an example from the world of birds, with which I have been acquainted most of my life:

The Dodo, a non-flying bird which lived on the Island of Mauritius (located at the southeast corner of Africa near Madagascar) was a distinct species created by God.  It was about 3 feet tall, was bulky-bodied, and had a bulbous beak.  It was distantly related to pigeons, but it could not fly.  There were no natural predators on the island, so it survived well until man arrived. Sailors hunted dodos, which they easily killed.  They inevitably brought hunting animals which killed more. Eventually, the Dodo became extinct. The last known living bird was seen in 1662.  Only fossils and a couple of skeleton parts remain, so we actually don’t know what a real Dodo looked like.  It was not a mistake made by God, but simply a part of the creation which could not exist on the earth any more.  Dinosaurs, similarly, are simply reptiles which could not exist on the earth due to changes in the temperature and atmosphere.  They are extinct today.  

Our old man is very similar to the Dodo.  We were a unique species created by God.  We were designed to exist well, in harmony with our own surroundings.  We were created to be keepers (shamar) of the earth.  

Genesis 1:28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” NASB

The original design God had for us was for us to be involved in subduing the earth.  We were to exercise dominion over it.  This is even before the fall of man, so even from the beginning, completely idleness was never God’s plan for us.  This sounds like it involved some effort, or productive work, which we could easily do with almost limitless energy.  

The Dodo didn’t create its problems.  It was a matter of coincidence, which God knew would happen. Similar to the Dodo, our circumstances caused the doom of our old man. But different from the Dodo, WE created our own problems due to sin. When Adam chose to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, He lost all the supernatural ability he had been given to do all the tasks God expected of him.  

Genesis 4:9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? (shamar)” NASB

By the time in history when Cain killed Abel, mankind had obviously lost the ability to do, or even feel responsible for, his job as a keeper, or shamar, of his brother, or anything else.  The word shamar was widely used in many Scriptures to describe the work of somebody who kept watch, whether it be a gate, a flock, a temple entry, a forest, a wardrobe, one’s own soul, etc. Today, unsaved people eventually become hopeless, not having any awareness of their Creator, cut off from any way to survive in a spiritual world they have no way to understand, just like the Dodo.  

Jesus came to change all of this for us! We were all like Dodos, except we were trapped by our own sin, not just innocent creatures like the Dodo.  Jesus had no reason to do anything to change our circumstances, but He chose to give an incredible sacrifice to rescue us from the hopeless misery of our own making.  There was no reason for Him to subject himself to murdered in our stead.  The only motivation which drive Him to give up His life in our stead was love.  When we were so blind, deaf, and dumb that we didn’t even know we needed help, He rescued us.  Just how complete this rescue was is only hinted at in 2 Cor 5:17 above.  What He did was He made us a completely new species! We are not just a cleaned up version of the old man we used to be.  When you believed in Jesus, an amazing transformation happened.  Just like the difference between the old, extinct Dodo and another, completely different type of bird, you are completely different from what you used to be.  This is a big, major overlooked teaching in modern Christianity! As a result, we spend much of our christian lives just surviving, waiting to get to heaven, having little effect here on earth.  We were meant to be keepers, preserving and bettering the earth.  

To understand this, let’s look at another example from bird lore:  the Turkey vulture.  This bird is our friend! A well-known nature columnist in a Pittsburgh paper says the Turkey vulture is his favorite bird.  It is so common we could probably look outside and see them circling in the distant sky, hunting for carrion, their main food.  They are masters of flight, hunting by smell, not sight.  Weighing only about two pounds, they remain aloft on air currents for long periods of time. They are God’s clean up crew, disposing of what could be dangerous animal carcasses.  Their heads are bare, so they can easily insert their entire head into a virus-infested carcass without getting their feathers infected.  The digestive tract juices in their stomachs are so strong they kill viruses which would infect us. In some ways they are similar to us Christians: They are keepers of the forest by cleaning up animals which have died from disease and are decaying.  They protect us, amazingly, by eating up dangerous viruses before they get into our water and food.  They generally don’t pray on other birds, or animals and have a gentle disposition.  We, through our ministry of the word, kill off harmful beliefs and untruths which kill people and make them sick.  We guard our cities and bring healing, blessing and preservation to them through our ministries of love and provision. Like them, we are a stabilizing factor in the whole ecosystem of the earth.  Some of us even have bald heads!

You can read all I wrote above and conclude “I don’t feel like a new creature; I don’t look or act like a new creature.  How can God say that I am so new that even old things passed away and all things are new?  I don’t get it.”  Let’s learn a bit about how God operates in the world of faith:

Romans 4:17 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN,AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8 BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.” 9 Is this blessing then on [d]the circumcised, or on [e]the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 10How then was it credited? While he was [f]circumcised, or [g]uncircumcised? Not while [h]circumcised, but while [i]uncircumcised; 11and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which [j]he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, 12and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which [k]he had while uncircumcised. 13 For the promise to Abraham or to his [l]descendants that he would be heir of the world was not [m]through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14For if those who are [n]of the Law are heirs, then faith is made void and the promise is nullified; 15for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. 16 For this reason it is [o]by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the [p]descendants, not only to [q]those who are of the Law, but also to [r]those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17(as it is written: “I HAVE MADE YOU A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, that is, God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that do not exist. NASB

God routinely works by speaking things into existence.  He speaks first and then the reality comes forth sometime later.  He spoke in the creation and planets showed up.  In similar manner, He speaks about our dead state (dead in sin) and then our live state (a new creature in Christ).  We are, the moment we believe, a new species of human.  If we believe it, we start acting like it, even before we feel like it or look like it.  The spirit and soul are affected very quickly.  We start acting and speaking differently.  The body (as we are elsewhere told) comes along more slowly, but it, too is eventually completely new and will remain so forever.  These transformations are done through faith, just as every miracle in the Bible. God spoke it, and sometimes days or weeks intervened before the miracle was manifested (Red Sea, Lions Den, Defeat of the Midianites, etc.) 

Conclusion - What is needed is faith like a child to start acting like the new creature God says we are.    

Luke 18:17  Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”