A New Creature by Horatius Bonner
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 What condemnation do these words
pronounce upon the shallow, meager religions so common among us,
making us feel that hardly any description of its professors
could be more exaggerated or unreal than that of being new
creatures? Take yon member of the church.
He wears the garb and bears the name of Christ. He is a fair
average specimen of a large class. He has the profession of being
a Christian. Yet he is fond of the world. He grasps at its gold. He loves
its fashionable gaiety. He reads its novels. He frequents
its haunts of amusement. He enjoys its company. He relishes
its foolish talking and jesting. Is He a new creature in Christ
Jesus? Is it possible that with so much
worldliness, so much selfishness, so much self-indulgence, so much
pleasing of the flesh, He can have been born again, whatever
His profession may be? A new creature, then old feelings,
old habits, old tastes, old hopes, old joys, old sorrows, old haunts,
old companionships are all gone. Old things have passed away.
All things have become new. Formerly, I sought the things
of this world. So now, by the necessity of my
new nature, I seek the things above. Sin has become hateful. Holiness has become supremely
attractive. My vision has been purged, so
that now I see everything as with a new eye, the evil, with
an eye which loathes it. the holy, with an eye which loves
it, I approach everything with new feelings, new tastes, new
sympathies, new antipathies. I behold everything in a new
light and from a new point of view. Myself, this world, the
world to come, God, Christ, and the everlasting joys, all these
are to me now what they have never been before. My whole inner
man has changed respecting them. There has been a new creation. What, then, have I to do with
sin, with the flesh, with the vanities of so vain a life, as
the men of this world are leading? O, the unimaginable blessedness
of those on whom this new creation has taken place! O, the unutterable,
the endless misery on those whom no change has passed, in whom
old things still remain! This Puritan devotional has been
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