A new creature

(Horatius Bonar, "Christ and the New Creation")

"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
 old things have passed away; behold, all things
 have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17

What condemnation do these words pronounce upon
the shallow, meager religion 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
--all are 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 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?

Oh, the unimaginable blessedness of those on whom
this new creation has taken place! Oh, the unutterable,
the endless misery of those on whom no change has
passed--in whom old things still remain!