Is a Gradate of Northwestern University in 1911
THERE IS a doctrine that is very little known and still less taught that is very closely related to the doctrine of the New Birth. It is the "new creation in Christ Jesus.
He who is saved is "created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:10). "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation" (Galatians 6:15). This creation takes the place of the old creation in the first Adam. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (Second Corinthians 5:17). This new creation is "the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).
The new self is the born-again self, the one born of the spirit, as distinguished from the old self, or carnal self, the one born of the flesh. The old self has a corrupt human nature, with inborn tendency to evil. The new self is partaker of a divine nature and life and is in no sense the old self made over, or improved. (See Dr. Schofield's Reference notes to Ephesians 4:24 and Romans 6:6)
God created Adam in his own likeness (Genesis 5:1, 2). Afterward, "Adam . . . had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth" (Genesis 5:3). Thus is stated the beginning of the generations of the human race, but something had happened in the interval between the second and third verses. Adam through sin had lost the likeness of God. When Seth was begotten in Adam's "own likeness, in his own image," it was not in the original likeness to God but it was in the likeness of the sinful Adam. Also, as it was said of Adam "and then he died," so it was also said of Seth - "and then he died." The observant reader will find the following formula throughout the chapter: "Altogether . . . lived . . . years . . . and then he died." There is one exception, Enoch who was "taken from this life, so that he did not experience death" (Hebrews 11:5), is a prototype of those saints who are to be caught up when Christ comes for his Church.
Ever since that same formula has applied to man. every descendant of Adam from Cain and Seth down to the present day, has been born in the likeness and image of Adam, with a sinful nature and subject to death. There is absolutely no escape from this condition. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world [humanity] through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. Consequently, ... the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men" (Romans 5:12, 18).
The words that are written large over the first creation, that of which Adam is the federal head, are - "SIN HAS REIGNED, TO DEATH." That condition is unalterable, for God had commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and has made death the penalty for disobedience. This means death in its fullest significance, physical death, spiritual death and the second death which is the final everlasting separation of the body, soul and spirit from God. God's commandment has been broken and the penalty cannot be avoided.To be lost in this first creation is to be dead in trespassed and sins.
When the Son of God became flesh and came into the world, he lived among men of the old creation, but he was not of it. He was not of the seed of Adam, but of the seed of the woman. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he did not possess Adam's sinful nature. He was full of truth (John 1:14). He was in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), but no sin was in him.
Then through infinite love, he identified himself with the first creation and took upon himself the guilt of it. He was the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. As a result, he tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9).
But God raised him up, "freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" (Acts 2:24). He arose victorious over death. The Son of God? Yes, but also the Son of man. With his resurrection there was a new creation raised by God out of the death of the old. All who are saved are enlivened together with Christ in this resurrection. "But God ... made us alive with Christ ... even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).
As the first creation has one man as its federal head, so also has the new, the man Jesus Christ (Romans 5:15). The first creation received its sinful nature from its federal head, Adam. The new creation receives its righteous nature from its federal head, the man Jesus Christ, for "through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). In each case, the nature of the creation depends on the act of the head. It doesn't depend on the acts of those people that derive from those heads.
As the unalterable law of the first creation is Sin, to death, so the law of the new is GRACE REIGNS THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS, TO ETERNAL LIFE. This law of the new creation is even more unalterable than that of the first creation. "For if, by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17). Since the head cannot be condemned (Romans 6:9, 10), the members of the new creation cannot be condemned.
To be saved is to be in the new creation under the law of righteousness, to eternal life. To be lost is to be in the first creation under the law of sin, to death. If one who has been saved can be lost, it must be possible to bring him back into his original position in the old creation. That is impossible. To say that this could happen would be to contradict Jesus' own words: "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me ... will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). Furthermore, for everyone that is in the new creation, the old has passed away (Second Corinthians 5:17). There can be no return to it.
To say that a saved person, one who has been enlivened together with Christ, can be lost is to reject completely God's teachings concerning his new creation.
You have read a chapter from the book _"SHALL NEVER PERISH" by J. F. Strombeck you can read the entire book at,
Shall Never Perish - By J. F. Strombeck
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