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re $t/rr e-C-tio*) The Salvation of Scripture —The Extent B y B. B. S utcliffe (Portland, Oregon) (All rights reserved)
effect that the old creation is wholly evil, and that the evil is more and more clearly revealed as time goes on. Beginning with Gen; 3 :12, when man first confessed his sinfulness, the progress of the race has been steadily downward and away from God, not upward and nearer to God. A few centuries after this first confession of sin, Moses had to write that “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). David, a few centuries later, wrote: “They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good, . . . they are altogether become filthy” (Psa. 14:1-3). A few centuries after David, Isaiah, in describing the state of the people, says: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart fa in t..From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it” (Isa. 1:5, 6). When Jesus Christ appeared upon earth, 700 years after Isaiah, he found man full of every sort of corruption and he would not commit Himself unto them (John 2 :24, 25). He declared that out of the heart of man came evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, lasciv iousness, and all evil things (Mk. 7:21-23). In spite of such testimony from Scripture there are some who are so enamored of the achievements of men that they declare that while possibly there was no upward progress during the centuries covered by Bible history, yet since then there has been substantial improvement. But, as though foreseeing the present day, the Holy Spirit, in one terse and illuminating stroke, has accurately described the times in which we find ourselves. He says, “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18). Will anyone contend that the fear of God rules in any large measure in the hearts of men today? Not only has the Holy Spirit thus revealed conditions of today, but He has definitely described conditions of tomorrow when He says, “In the last days perilous times shall come. . . . . Men shall be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:1-5) and, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine . . . they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3, 4). Finally, in the future days of judgment, the irremediable character of the old creation is revealed in that, even while the judgment falls , “men . . . blas phemed the name o f God, . . . and they repented not to give him glory” (Rev. 16:9). Thus the old creation, that connected with the first Adam, is utterly corrupt and beyond repair. Hence, to fulfill his own purposes of grace, God has brought in the new creation, which is connected with the second Adam. As the old partakes of all that characterizes its head, i.e., Adam as fallen, so the new partakes of all that character izes its head, i.e., Christ as risen from the dead. The many characteristics of the new creation reveal in some measure the extent of the Salvation of Scripture, but the lack of space forbids the mention of more than two or three of these. C ommun ity of L ife The new creation possesses the life of Christ which is His as risen from the dead. The commencement of
HE extent of the Salvation of Scripture is indi cated in 2 Cor. 5 :17, R. V .: “Wherefore i f any man is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things are passed away; behold, they are be come new.” . The “wherefore” of this verse takes us back over verses 14-16, which speak of the death and resurrec tion of Christ. The old things are passed away because of the character of the death of Christ. He died as the sinner’s substitute in such a real sense that the believing sinner can now declare, in all reality, “I am crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2 :20); or, as it is stated in Col. 2 :20, I am “dead with Christ.” And in the second place, because of the character of the resurrection of Christ, all things are become new in such a real sense that the believing sinner truly declares that he is “risen with Christ” (Col. 3 :1). Hence if any man be “in Christ,” united to Him in His death and in His resurrection, there is a new creation. This new creation is not something repaired and reno vated. It has subsistence and being of its own. It is pro duced by a creative act or it would not be a creation; and it is something apart from the old or it would not be new. It had no existence until Christ rose from the dead, but as the Risen One he becomes the head of this new cre ation as Adam was the head of the old. The old was dealt with in the death of Christ, and God is not now dealing with it at all: It has been revealed as wholly beyond repair, without hope of improvement, and fit only to be slain and buried. The new. creation does not alter or change the old in any particular. The old is of the flesh and “that which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). The old was created in innocency which it lost through sin, but the new is created in right eousness and true holiness which it cannot lose (Eph. 4:22-24). - ■ T he O ld C reation I ncapable of I mprovement It is this new creation, and only this new creation, which has any standing before God: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumci sion, but a nezv creation” (Gal. 6:15). God’s creative act has always been opposed by human reasonings. Man has invented the theory of evolution to eliminate God from the old creation, and he invents the heresy of legalism or of culture to vitiate God’s work in the new. Man would have both the old and the new creations to be merely improve ments upon what already existed. But here is an entirely new creation in which the old things are passed (not, are passing) away, and all things are become (not, are becom ing) new. Of believers it is written, “We are his work manship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2 :10). Hence the new creation is not a changed man but a new man; pos sessed with a new nature and having new instincts. One of -the greatest hindrances to any proper realiza tion of the extent of the Salvation of Scripture is the cur rent misconception about the old creation. It is popularly supposed that the old creation is susceptible of improve ment; indeed, it is confidently asserted that it is improv ing.' But the universal testimony of Scripture is to the
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