“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. v. 17.
1 Nothing, is more clearly stated, or more strongly insisted on, by St. Paul, than the new creation, or second beginning, or regeneration, of the world, which has been vouchsafed in Christ. It had been announced in prophecy. “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor, come into mind.” Again: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah … I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.” And again: “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them.” [Isa. lxv. 17. Jer. xxxi. 31, 33. Ez. xxxvi. 26, 27.] In the text, St. Paul declares the fulfilment of these promises in the Gospel. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away,” as the heavens and earth shall pass away, at the end of the world; “behold, all things are become new.” And hence he calls Christ, not only “the Image of the Invisible God,” but also “the first-born of every creature;” or, as He calls Himself in the book of Revelation, “the beginning of the creation of God.” [Col. i. 15. Rev. iii. 14.] St. Paul also speaks of “the new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through His flesh;” of Christians having “put off the old man with his deeds,” and having “put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the Image of Him that created him;” of “newness of life,” and “newness of spirit;” of “ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit;” and of our being God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” [Heb. x. 20. Col. iii. 9, 10. Rom. vi. 4; vii. 6. 2 Cor. iii. 6. Eph. ii. 10.] Elsewhere he says, that true and availing “circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God;” and that “circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping the commandments of God.” [Rom. ii. 29. 1 Cor. vii. 19.]
Now it may be asked, Is there not some contrariety in these statements? The Gospel is said to be a new covenant, and yet, after all, it is to consist in “walking in God’s statutes” and “doing His judgments,” and “keeping His commandments,” and being “created unto good works.” Now these were but the terms of the old covenant: “Fear God and keep His commandments;” “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments;” “The man that doeth those things shall live by them.” [Eccles. xii. 13. Rom. x. 5.] If the new Covenant be of works too, how is the Gospel other than the Law? how can it justly be called new? If the way of salvation be now what it ever has been, how are we gainers? What privilege is there in being brought under the Gospel? What has Christ done for us? Hence some persons have concluded that salvation under the Gospel is not of works; and in confirmation of this they urge, that St. Paul elsewhere speaks expressly of salvation as being not of works but of faith; and they allege that faith is a new way of salvation, though works of obedience are not and cannot be.
Now there can be no doubt at all that salvation is by faith, and that its being by faith is one of those special circumstances which make the Gospel a new covenant; but still it may be by works also; for, to use a familiar illustration, obedience is the road to heaven, and faith the gate. Those who attempt to be saved simply without works, are like persons who should attempt to travel to a place, not along the road, but across the fields. If we wish to get to our journey’s end, we shall keep to the road; but even then we may go the wrong road. This was the case with the Jews. They professed to go along the road of works,—they did not wander into the fields,—so far well: but they took the wrong road. That particular road of which faith is the gate, that particular obedience, those particular works, which commence in faith, these are the only right and sure road to heaven. It is wrong to leave the road for the open country; again, it is wrong to go along the wrong road;—but it is not wrong to go along the right road. And in like manner it is sinful to attempt no obedience whatever; it is blind perversity to attempt obedience by the Jewish law or the law of nature; but it is not sinful, it is not perverse, it is nothing else than wisdom, nothing else than true godliness, to follow after that obedience which is of faith.