THE NEW CREATURE

    Many people would believe that they are already a new creature once they quit smoking, conquer their incontinence, and profess themselves to be doing the good works.

    Little do they know that this change is just a scratch on the surface.  The new creature is the man inside each and every one of us.  The new creature is the man who have changed in his body just like what was mentioned early, then change in his soul, that is, his conscience is purged from dead works, and finally, his spirit is changed with the spirit of God.

    Going into the details of these, a man becomes a new creature in the body if he is able to mortify his flesh lust and cleanse himself from the filth of the flesh.  To do this is to have no fellowship with the devil.  To do this is not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what agreement has Christ with belial or the temple with idols?  Man has to separate himself from the world.  Hence, Israel was brought into the wilderness for them to be washed, sanctified, justified and then glorified in serving God. 

    If man were to know if he is indeed bodily a new creature then here are the indicators:  he will stop from all his vices, he will cease from bearing the fruits of the flesh, and he will hate to be spotted by the world.  On the conversely, he will begin to do the works of a servant of God, to wit: he will be prayerful, we will love fellowship with his spiritual brothers and sisters, he will not stumble at every evil that he will see along his way to serving God, and eventually his days shall be spent only in serving the Lord making his days the days of Sabbath and the days of sanctification. 

    In achieving all of the indicators man will then be suffering in well-doing.  I know this is a darksaying and even a word of foolishness to some of the readers but if you will have the clean heart and mind I am pretty sure that the Spirit will guide you in understanding these sayings.  

    The way to achieving the indicators of a changed body is only by physical separation from the physical world.  Meaning, you will have to realize that for Israel to change they were taken into the wilderness for 40 years.  Another is by honorably making an oath to God regarding all your weaknesses not to yield to them anymore.  One must make an oath to God that once he yield to one of those weaknesses then he must allow God to have the freehand to judge and punish him.  Afterall, God's sons have the same experience on the love of God.  He chastens whom he love.

1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 
James 3:2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.  

Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

    Know, however, that Israel never changed inspite of all of  God's effort so that all of the warriors died in the wilderness in the 38th year.  The moral lesson here is that any man who desires to change must continually press toward the mark of the high calling for there will inevitably be a falling and rising but don't you quit. 
    
    On the second layer of change, that is, to become a new creature, man has to change at the level of his soul.  His mind has got to be converted.  Many people mistake baptism as the conversion itself.  Conversion is actually the renewing of the spirit in one's mind.  Conversion is also the stage of the blotting out of the sins of man and the start of the healing process.  

    Know that the spirit dwells in the heart and in the mind of a man so that it is necessary to wash and cleanse these always with the word of God and by taking heed unto it.  Forgetting the word of God that you hear and exposing yourself to the vanities of life is to deceive yourself, and worse, you are making your mind hard, obstinate, and incorrigible in the process.

    Becoming a new creature is not just a simple idea of change.  This is the shortcoming of many in the spiritual world.  The spirit of the fear of the Lord is the agent of change and, therefore, having not this spirit they continue in their sins and are deceive by themselves believing that they are already saved.