The Resurrection and the New Creation
Christ risen from the dead is not merely an example of new life, but the source and creator of a second creation in which humanity is renewed.
When Christ rose from the dead, He rose with His very body, but in His new state which no longer has death reigning over it—as a complete model for the new creation. He is not of the new creation, but the new creation is from Him. For He is its Creator in Himself for our sake, so that He may grant it to us through the new birth by the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism. For just as Adam granted us his mortal creation through procreation by carnal birth, so did Christ grant the fellowship of life as a new creation that does not meet death.
The new creation begins from Him, and it took its first beginning in Him; but He was before it and before every creation, for He is His Word, the Creator, with the Father since the beginning. So the new creation was established and renewed by Him, for we are members in Him.
The new humanity was created in Christ and by Christ, and was immersed in the resurrection from the dead. It was found visible and perceptible to many, even though it was hidden in Christ Jesus, as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the worlds, and will remain hidden from the world—not to be seen except by the eye of God, and by every eye that sees by the eye of God. For this is the mystery of Christ, which in other generations mankind did not know, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and His children by the Spirit (Ephesians 3).
The body is joined by faith in the resurrection from the dead and by baptism to Christ. However, this new creation, with all its gifts, remains side by side with the old creation, the body of sin. Nevertheless, the new creation is reckoned alone as the Truth, the Light, and the Life. As for the old, it is merely an entity that disintegrates and vanishes with time—as if it is an entity that walks behind us in the world through time, like the shadow of a truth higher than it beyond measure. That truth walks before us, but it is in our depths, and it is precisely the Risen Christ, the Kingdom of God within you.
“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:20
The state of this new humanity says with Paul:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” — Galatians 2:20
Characteristics of the New Creation and Characteristics of the Old Creation
This old creation within us is passing away, according to its earthly origin, in its striving to break God’s laws, side by side with the new creation—which is not under law but under His grace, and for Him, and it lives and praises.
The first feeds on pride and is conceived by lust; it is itself under the bondage of time and proceeds with it towards annihilation. As for the other, it is nourished by love which changes from glory to glory, and is renewed every day, challenging time and walking steadfastly towards immortality, for the Spirit nourishes it, and it learns from Him in everything to become with Him always.
The new creation is the image that declares God’s surpassing love and His revealed mercy. Indeed, if God created the first creation from nothing as proof of His power over everything, He created the second creation from the depths of sin and death as an act of surpassing love and mercy.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” — John 3:16
The first creation we inherited through the flesh, and with it sin and its law condemning to death.
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” — Psalm 51:5
And we are embryos of death inherent in its depths.
The second creation we inherited by grace through baptism, when we died with Him unto death and rose with Him also; and in us is the power of resurrection. The root of the defiant serpent, Cain, exists in the very core of the old creation, whose deeds do not justify.
The old creation is what we represent best when we proceed to commit sin by our own free will. But the life-giving truth that is in us—He is the very Christ resurrected at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us always—so we obtain through Him complete reconciliation with God.
Through our old deeds and stray actions, our will is always quickly disturbed, and we find solace before the Majestic God in times of repentance and remorse in our depths by grace. We purify it with prayer and love; our peace with God is renewed, and we boast in Him, not in ourselves but in the truth residing with us. With God, in whom is all sufficiency, we are placed in a state of reconciliation and peace. And from day to day we put off the old to wear the new, which is renewed in us in the image of our Creator, freed from sin, the righteousness of Christ ruling over us.