Metaphors of the Mystery - Part 3
How to Read the New Testament as a New Creation
Many Christians read the New Testament from the wrong starting point.
They read it as instructions for the old man. They read it as a guide for self-improvement. They read it as if God is trying to fix Adam.
That approach will frustrate you.
The New Testament is not written to improve the old man. It is written to reveal the new man.
If you miss that, you will misread it. You will turn realities into goals. You will turn identity into effort. You will turn revelation into law.
You must read the New Testament as a new creation.
Start With What God Has Done
The apostles begin with what God has already done in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5 (KJ2000)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
This is your starting point.
You are not becoming new. You are new.
You are not repairing the old life. The old has passed. You now have a different life, from a different source.
Read every passage from that standpoint.
Read Instructions as Expression, Not Effort
Most believers read commands as pressure.
They see “walk in love” and think effort.
They see “forgive” and think struggle.
They see “put away lying” and think discipline.
But the apostles are not trying to create a new nature in you. They are calling you to express the one you already have.
Ephesians 4 (KJ2000)
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The new man is already created in righteousness.
The instruction is simple. Live in line with who you are.
Do not read commands as a ladder. Read them as alignment.
Understand the New Birth
The new birth is real.
It is not a figure of speech. It is not behaviour change. It is not a fresh start for the old man.
It is a new life.
John 3 (KJ2000)
7 Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again.
8 The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell from where it came, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
1 Peter 1 (KJ2000)
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.
You now have God’s incorruptible life.
When you read the New Testament, you are not trying to produce the life of God in you. You are learning how that life works.
Read the Letters as a Son
The epistles are written to believers.
They are written to saints. To brethren. To sons. To the church.
They are not written to outsiders trying to qualify.
Even correction is given from relationship.
Colossians 3 (KJ2000)
10 And have put on the new man, that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him;
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
You are being reminded. You are not being recruited.
Read as an insider, as one who belongs.
Let Identity Lead Conduct
The New Testament follows a clear order.
What God has done in Christ
Who you are because of it
How you now live
If you reverse that order, you will struggle.
If you follow it, things will become clear.
You are light, so walk as light.
You are forgiven, so forgive.
You are risen, so seek things above.
Conduct flows from identity.
Renew Your Mind
Your spirit is new. Your thinking may not be.
That is the gap.
You can be a new creation and still think like the old man. That is why the apostles keep pointing you back to what God has done.
Renewal is not pretending. It is agreement.
Read the New Testament to adjust your thinking to your reality.
Ask one question as you read: what does this show me about who I am in Christ?
That question will change how you read everything.
See Christ as Your Life
The centre of the New Testament is not behaviour. It is Christ.
Not Christ outside you. Christ in you.
Colossians 1 (KJ2000)
26 Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
This is the key.
You are not trying to imitate Christ from a distance. You share His life.
So read the New Testament with that in mind.
Not as a sinner trying to qualify.
Not as Adam trying to improve.
Not as a servant trying to earn.
Read as a new creation.
Learn who you are.
Think in line with it.
Live from it.
Continue in grace!