WHAT WE BECOME BY REGENERATION
The New Creation
After we are regenerated, we become the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). What is the difference between the old creation and the new creation? In the old creation there is nothing of God’s essence, that is, nothing of God Himself. In the new creation, however, there is the very essence of God. The old creation was made by God’s hand, but the new creation is something of regeneration with God Himself as life. Moreover, in the old creation we can see the power of God, but the life of God is not in it. God is not mingled with the old creation, while in the new creation God Himself as life is mingled with the creature. Therefore, because God is in the new creation, it is something new. Only God Himself is ever new, and God Himself is newness. Without God in something, that thing is old, but anything with God in it can never be old. The New Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth, the new man, and the new creation will never be old because God is in them, and God is new and newness. Today we are the new creation.
Children of God
We are also born of God to be the children of God (John 1:12-13). We are not adopted children. Rather, we are born of God with his life in us. The authority and right for us to be God’s children is the divine life. If a child is born of someone, he has the life of that person as the right and authority to be that person’s child. We have been born of God, so we have the authority to be His children.
Members of the Body of Christ
We are also the members of the Body of Christ (Eph. 5:30; Rom. 12:5). Being members of the Body of Christ means that we are the parts of Christ. You are a part of Christ, and I am a part of Christ.
We are the new creation, God’s children, and the members of Christ. Of course, we are many other things, but these three are the most basic ones. As the new creation we have God Himself mingled with us. Therefore, we are no longer only men; we are now God-men. We are also the children of God, born of Him and having Him as our life. Moreover, we are the members and parts of Christ, being one in life with Him. We must be very clear concerning these matters. Then we can go on to grow in a proper way in the spiritual life and develop in what we have received and in what we have become. We need to be developed as the new creation, as the children of God to build up the house of God, and as the members of Christ to build up the Body. The church is the Body built up with the members of Christ, and it is the house, the dwelling place, the habitation, of God built up with His children.
If we spend the time to read these messages with the Scriptures, to study them, pray, and pray-read, we will have an inner realization and understanding, and we will see these things properly. Then we will know that the central point of God’s salvation and His eternal purpose is that God is working Himself in His Trinity into us as everything to make us parts of His dwelling place and the members of the Body of Christ, and we will also grow into this stature.
(Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
