The New Creature – Who?
New Creature
The new creature in Christ is a babe in Christ. They must grow, now, longing for the pure milk of the word (1 Pet. 2:2). Like a newborn baby with an immediate desire and inclination for its mother’s milk, the newborn in Christ senses the sweet attraction to its source of life and growth. Let me answer right away who spiritual growth involves; it is for the new creature, born by the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
I am not speaking to the unbelieving person, directly. I am speaking to the Christian because it is only the Christian that is nourished by the word of God. The Christian has life and life to nourish. The unbelieving is dead in their sins. With hearts of stone, the dead cannot sense, taste, eat, nor grow. In darkness, death and degeneration is the only reality, a fading away.
Where there is a fading away for what is dead, there is the growing kingdom of life to eternity for the Christian. We are told in 1 Peter 1:3-4 that God, “Has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” In this writing, I want us to taste the awe-inspiring reality of who we are as Christians, a people born by the Spirit of God. The effect of this, God willing, is that we would be drawn to love and cherish the spiritual things of God; to grow therein. If you are a Christian, you have been given a special gift of the Holy Spirit to understand the things of God. You are born of that Spirit.
Infancy
“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men” (1 Cor. 3:1-3)?
Why is Paul speaking this way of the Corinthians? Why could he not speak to them as to spiritual men, but instead needed to speak as if they were men of the flesh? What is even more curious, maybe, is that he draws a close correlation to, “Men of the flesh,” and, “Infants in Christ.” It is not as though these two types are intrinsic to each other. Though, the infant in Christ is trying to put away its manhood of flesh. This manhood is still present and so not being intrinsic, it is like a weight being carried by the infant. The infant in Christ could not be anything greater in difference from the man of the flesh. It is a new creature; born again by the Spirit of God, being in complete opposition to the flesh. So then, there is a great canyon of difference between the fleshly man, the natural man, and the newly born infant in Christ – the spiritual, but a heavy connection still exists because they share a territory; these vessels called bodies.
Not acting mature, the Corinthians could not be spoken to as men, spiritually. Instead, their infancy in Christ was evident by the great weight they still carry, the jealousy and strife only men of the flesh are known for. The words Paul wanted to give them were considered solid food, words that only someone mature in Christ and in Spirit can receive. Instead, Paul must settle for words only an infant in Christ can handle, words like milk. A baby cannot receive solid food; they will choke or else their stomachs will not be capable of handling it. They must be nourished in time with milk, what they can handle, until they grow and are capable of more and more substantial means.
Therefore, the infant in Christ, the newborn, needs spiritual food that is the words from the Spirit of God. Even though they are something completely different from the natural man of the flesh, the weight of that flesh is still present with them. Until they begin to nourish themselves on spiritual milk, growing and learning to remove the weight of the old natural man, they cannot receive solid spiritual food. The milk is elementary (Heb. 5:12); the solid is intricate, secondary. So, if the infant in Christ cannot receive solid spiritual food, what does that say about the purely natural man born of the flesh? I am trying to display the distinction of capabilities between the Christian, the newly created, born again, and the naturally born person of the world, the unbeliever. With this distinction should come a telescopic look into exactly who spiritual growth is for and how remarkably necessary it is for the Christian.
Wisdom
If we look at what precedes 1 Cor. 3:1-3, Paul says in chapter two that, “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (vv.7-8). This wisdom is the amazing things of God that described here give us the impression of something like the great treasure of the universe. This wisdom he says is, “To our glory.” We share in the glory of Christ Jesus. Yet, this wisdom is for the mature because Paul says, “We do speak wisdom among those who are mature” (v.6).
This is Paul’s issue with the Corinthian church in chapter three. He wants them to receive this wisdom, substantial spiritual food for the mature, but they are acting like infants. It is almost as if in all of chapter three he is saying, “Look who you belong to, Corinthians! ‘You belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God’ (v.23)! You belong to Him because you have the Spirit of God within you. You have been born into this. This is who you are and so, act like it!”
It is from this plea of his that he reminds them, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God” (2:12). The “spirit of the world” that he references is that natural man, the fleshly man. It is this great distinction, the canyon of difference between the natural man and the spiritual that Paul is trying to make clear throughout chapters 1-3. It is this same distinction I am trying to use for this writing, to describe the “who” of spiritual growth.
As those who belong to the Spirit, we are spiritual people to be taught by the Spirit. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (2:14). There, again, is the distinction. As asked earlier, if the infant in Christ cannot receive solid spiritual food, what does that say about the purely natural man born of the flesh? The answer is here in 2:14, “They are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them.” Things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned, Paul, says. Naturally, then, “The thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God” (2:11). Thank God, then, because Christians have received the Spirit who is from God (v.12). “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (2:10). “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” (2:16).
Born from Above
Having the Holy Spirit and mind of Christ is paramount to receiving and understanding the things of God. This is seen in what is probably the best known and most referenced passage dealing with the new, born again believer: John 3:3. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The condition for seeing the kingdom of God is this being born again. The word, “Seeing,” is to imply a perceiving with clear discernment and, especially here, a perceiving through experience; to behold what is seen. The light of Christ shines bright into the born-again to reveal what is true and good, especially of the kingdom of God. In that moment, from what is dead and fading comes a precious new child of God sensing the kingdom of God. In that moment, it begins to sense this kingdom; it can feel the air of its reality, it begins to open its eyes in tiny slits to let in the light, its ears can hear the music of worship, and it can sense and taste the sweetness of its source of life, the voice and words of the One who gave breath to it.
The context that John 3:3 sits in is great for showing the importance of sensing the kingdom of God in order to perceive with understanding its reality and truth. As said earlier, the dead do not have the senses for the kingdom and life. They cannot see nor perceive; they cannot hear. When Nicodemus questions Jesus in John 3:9 with, “How can these things be,” Jesus responded with, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things” (v.10)? Nicodemus could not understand because he was not born again to sense the truth. Jesus goes on to say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony” (v. 11). Then, “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man” (v. 13). Jesus’ point in all of this is to point out the necessary truth of his testimony, that he comes from the presence of God, that he is God, and so fully understands the things of God and the kingdom.
In their strict Greek form, the words “born again” used in John 3:3, mean to “be born from above”. This is where Jesus references himself having come from, having, “Descended from heaven.” It is also the point that John the Baptist makes later in chapter three of John’s gospel. When John the Baptist’s disciples come to him to question the authority of Jesus (v. 26), part of his response is that:
He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What he has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure (vv. 31-34).
In these four verses, we see that Jesus (the “He” that John is referencing): 1. Comes from above. 2. Testifies to what He has seen and heard. 3. Speaks the words of God because He has the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
This is directly paralleled with what the born again (born from above) child of God has received: the mind of Christ, the Spirit of God, the words of God, and the wisdom of God that Paul stresses in 1 Corinthians, chapters 1-3. If that is not enough, there is one verse from 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, that I have left in wait until now. Speaking of the wisdom of God, verse 9 says, “But just as it is written, ‘things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” If you love God as a child of God, born again, you have received the greatest treasures of the universe found in Christ.
Final Words
Right now, I encourage you to read chapter 3 of John in its entirety, followed by chapters 1-3 of 1 Corinthians, and lastly, John 1:1-18. Read them without pausing. The word of God, our food and nourishment is so unbelievably rich and full. It is my prayer that we would use our God given spiritual senses to long for and grasp the words and wisdom of God, our source of life and growth. Whether we are a brand-new Christian, an infant in Christ, or someone that has been in the faith for years, I pray we would realize our new life and walk to maturity, being capable of receiving solid food, the depths of the wisdom of God. It is what we were created anew in Christ to receive.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
-Pastor Ben