TRANSFORMATION

KEY VERSE: Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Cor 5:17)

  Let me reword this a bit: Therefore (putting away the flesh; verse 16), if any of Adamkind be in Christ, that “Adam” is a new creature: old things are passed away; but now look at yourself: everything about you are become new.

  That passage should worry everyone if it was not for two things: “old things” are in the past, but all things are becoming new. That has significance because the sentence is awkward for those reasons. “Born again” (John 3:16) is willingly abandoning the past. The past is full of sin because all Adamkind has sinned. “Man” is exactly like Adam and “woman” is exactly like Eve after they sinned.

  Adam and Eve committed the original sin but theretofore they had been original perfect creatures as generated by God. Theologists, especially Calvinists, have defined “born again” as “regenerated.” However, regeneration may be a long process, not as in the Campbellite and Stonite doctrines, but according to scripture.

  Abandoning the past is being in Christ; who did what on Adamkind’s behalf? Jesus paid the price for “all things,” as is written:

²³ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ²⁴ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: ²⁵ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; ²⁶ To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Rom 3:23-26)

  Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of Adamkind, including Adam and Eve themselves.

  Immediately, the Word (Jesus) killed an innocent lamb and made Adam (man) and Eve (woman) protection from the world outside the glory inside the Garden of Eden. “Glory” is perfection in “all things” and in the Presence of God (aka, “Jesus”).

  Just as Paul wrote to the Romans, that coat of skin was the propitiation of Adam and Eve’s sins which were past. In the world, they would be tried time after time as we know by the book of The Conflict of Adam and Eve With Satan. Their rebirth was tested for the duration of their long lives. They did, according to that ancient writings, endured to the end (of their mortal lives; Mat 10:22). What did they endure? Their conflicts in the world, but they were aided (Comforted, or Protected) by the Holy Spirit on them.

  For the duration of their lives, the Flesh provided by the Lamb of God was their flesh. By killing the living animal, the propitiation of blood redeemed them from all sins, but only “past sins” were “remitted,” or cleansed from their flesh. They feared entering moving waters, as their Conflicts indicate. The cleansing continued on a daily basis as they sinned and repented of their sins as they were further deceived.

  Seth, from Conflicts, was a righteous son of Adam. He remained pure but his righteous children became unrighteous by following Cain whose “father” was the Devil. Past sins are cleansed; therefore, to be “in Christ” must be a continual cleansing process by conviction and repentance for further cleansing.

  In other words, the baptism of John is not once and for all time, but on the other hand, the Holy Ghost of Jesus excises the hearts of the Christian continually. Scripture refers to that safe condition as “circumcision of the heart” (Rom 2:29).

  Circumcision of the heart is much like the coat of skin from a living animal that gave its life for Adam and Eve. The coat circumcised their hearts on a continual basis, and sin was cut off each time. That cutting away of the heart is sacrificing the Christian’s flesh in lieu of the person’s own corruptible flesh.

  With that background, the first step in regeneration is belief (Rom 3:26 above). “Belief” is from the Greek word, pistis (Strong’s Dictionary), meaning “persuaded” to have confidence that Jesus is God and his blood is the only way to be saved. That, according to Strong’s, “springs from faith” which is a gift of God (Ephes 2:8). Once faith draws one to trust by persuasion, the sinner is born again. Jesus pointed to the example of trust in Himself with the brazen serpent dead on its pole (John 3:14).

  With that trust, a new creature begins the regeneration process. Satan endeavors to interfere by continual conflicts, but the Christian who sins is not alone. The reborn Christian puts on a coat of Comfort (safety) as the Holy Ghost comes on him or her (Act 10:43-44). That “Ghost” is the Spirit of the crucified Jesus. Just like the “ghost” (memory) of the lamb protected Adam and Eve as a coat, the Lamb of God protects Christians from the world with His Holy Ghost.

  Thus far, the Christian, when reborn, is saved from “past sins” and begins to change into a “new creature” according to the key verse. A “babe in Christ” is the “caterpillar” stage until the glorious “butterfly” emerges.

  If the “caterpillar” endures to the end, then death is the gain with one proviso, that the person remains in Christ (Phil 1:21). If the caterpillars die, they return to the dust and never fully morph. In the world, husbandmen spray to kill the larvae. In scripture, the Husbandman (God) protects the larvae with a shell (the "caterpillar;"John 15:1) who are secure attached to the Vine (Jesus). “To die is gain” because the “caterpillars” move to the next stage. They shed their protective skin, leaving what is inside. That is what happens when a Christian dies — the dead skin required to live in the world is shed, and only the soul and its contents remain.

  (The larvae is a metaphor for the "living soul" and the caterpillar for the living soul with flesh.)

  When does the “living soul” become a glorious “butterfly?” When Jesus comes to take those “dead in Christ” who shall rise from the dust.

  Just as in the beginning, God creates, or better said, “recreates” incorruptible flesh from the same dust, and puts that flesh on the still alive soul, and voila, regeneration is nearly complete; the new creature in the image of God returns and is allowed into Paradise as Jesus snatches them away. That is the Way to the Tree of Life and the only Way to see God!

  The new creature is complete when they are snatched up but are not yet glorious as Adam was until they are in the new Paradise, the City of God, which was once only a Garden. The entire process went from an incongruous sinner in the image of Satan to a glorious new creature back to the image of God, as the old creature gradually changes.

  With that said, “all things are become new” (key verse), implying the transformation, not instantaneously, but continuously from rebirth to glorification.

  What is lacking with Christians is their spiritual growths are stunted in the larvae stage as they remain “babes in Christ.” A new creature never emerges. True, they are safe, but they also are vulnerable. What must they do? Grow their faith as a shield against the world. They cannot grow it alone, but if they remain with the Vine (Jesus), then they shall be saved. The Holy Ghost on them protects them from the vile husbandman spraying the disease of sin, and unless Satan “shears” them from the Vine, they shall be saved at the harvest of Christians in the end.

(picture credit: YouTube)