A New Creature by Horatius Bonner If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 What condemnation do these words pronounce upon the shallow, meager religions so common among us, making us feel that hardly any description of its professors could be more exaggerated or unreal than that of being new creatures? Take yon member of the church. He wears the garb and bears the name of Christ. He is a fair average specimen of a large class. He has the profession of being a Christian. Yet he is fond of the world. He grasps at its gold. He loves its fashionable gaiety. He reads its novels. He frequents its haunts of amusement. He enjoys its company. He relishes its foolish talking and jesting. Is He a new creature in Christ Jesus? Is it possible that with so much worldliness, so much selfishness, so much self-indulgence, so much pleasing of the flesh, He can have been born again, whatever His profession may be? A new creature, then old feelings, old habits, old tastes, old hopes, old joys, old sorrows, old haunts, old companionships are all gone. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. Formerly, I sought the things of this world. So now, by the necessity of my new nature, I seek the things above. Sin has become hateful. Holiness has become supremely attractive. My vision has been purged, so that now I see everything as with a new eye, the evil, with an eye which loathes it. the holy, with an eye which loves it, I approach everything with new feelings, new tastes, new sympathies, new antipathies. I behold everything in a new light and from a new point of view. Myself, this world, the world to come, God, Christ, and the everlasting joys, all these are to me now what they have never been before. My whole inner man has changed respecting them. There has been a new creation. What, then, have I to do with sin, with the flesh, with the vanities of so vain a life, as the men of this world are leading? O, the unimaginable blessedness of those on whom this new creation has taken place! O, the unutterable, the endless misery on those whom no change has passed, in whom old things still remain! This Puritan devotional has been brought to you by Grace Gems, a treasury of ageless Sovereign Grace writings. Please visit our website at www.gracegems.org, where you can browse and freely download thousands of choice books, sermons, and quotes, along with select audio messages. No donations accepted. Thank you.