ALL ABOUT OUR HERITAGE

 THE CREATURE 

KEY VERSE: 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) 

We hear that preached, it is often glossed over. In Christ is gain because the Christian is a new creature, and therefore to die is gain, according to Paul. (Phil 1:21). Because even Christians still sin, (1 John 1:10), there remains some of the genetics of the old creature within Christians that God, in His own time, corrects.

Sin is so hard to dismiss because it is the nature of the old creature in everyone. Sin is instinctive; given two choices, even Christians must turn to Christ — “in Christ” — to overcome that residual nature.

Just who is the “old creature”? The beasts are some of them, as can be seen from the genesis of animal-kind, to wit: 

God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.” (Gen 1:24)

 All the beasts were various and unique kinds, but the most unique was mankind, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he Him; male and female created He them” (Gen 1:27).

Some believe that there were two creations: chapter one and chapter two. I propose that there was one creation in two phases: (chapter 1) The creation of the souls of man and Paradise with its kinds. Yes, there are beasts in heaven (Isa 11:6), but animals are without souls, so it stands to reason, that the original animals of the Garden remained in Paradise in Heaven; and (chapter 2) human beings in an earthly Paradise were created.

Then after the heavens and earth were finished, He made the physical embodiment of man: 

⁷ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. (Gen 2:7-8)

 God chose mankind before the foundation of the world, so it seems that fits into the two-phase scheme. He chose mankind over the other kinds of species, and then created mankind differently; the animals were without souls, but mankind was chosen to have the Spirit of God generated in them. As such, Adam’s kind were the “new creatures” who were glorious.

Since it is the genesis of mankind and creating is “generating” it has much to do with genetics. Mankind was blessed enough to be made in the Image of God whereas the other species were not. Hence, mankind has the Genome of God within, or at least they did at the creation.

I believe that the “Glory of God” with which mankind, since original or genetic sin, comes short (Rom 1:23) is His Genome — His Identification or DNA in His Holy and Spiritual Chromosomes. Because Adam was a chosen a peculiar kind, the two “Adams” both had the Genome, or Glory of God.

A chromosome is a vessel that contains the DNA of each species, and the DNA of each is peculiarly different. The chromosome is the “color-body” (color of the body) and of course chromosomes are transparent revealing the kind of DNA. The “body” that has the color are the stained chromosomes of the species.

For scientists to see the chromosomes, they must be stained. Sin stained the chromosomes of mankind, possibly because of genetic sin (original that is inherited) which makes mankind like the other beasts. Our DNA is much like the crouching species of hairy primates although humans stand upright.

Since Adam and Eve had the DNA of God, their chromosomes would be glorious like God’s. As such, Adam and Eve were surely the new creatures, leaving the reader to question, What or who are the old creatures? Of course, the animal kingdom preceded the origin of mankind. As such, the beasts are the “old creatures.” Since mankind, since original sin, are in the image (nahas) of the Beast, called the “Serpent,” then those not in Christ are like the beasts, except for one thing: they have a degenerated soul that requires regeneration to make them glorious again.

Of all the beasts, which is the oldest? There was a creature made that was not mentioned in either chapter one or two — angels. Angels were created glorious as well but without flesh.

Flesh did not influence them because they had none. Those in Christ have the nature of angels of light and those like the Beast have natures of darkness. The light and dark reveals what is within the chromosomes. The darkness is the stain that provides a dark shadow over what was once glorious DNA. That “shadow” is the dark nature of sinful man and dark angels. As such, sinful men are like the old creatures, specifically Lucifer whose nature is serpentine, the most slithering of the beasts.

Genesis does not mention directly when the angel kingdom was created but did so implicitly, “God called the firmament ‘heaven.’ And the evening and the morning were the second day” (Gen 1:8). Heaven with its contents — angels — according to sacred literature was created secondly. They were created before any of the other creatures. Hence, Lucifer is the “old creature” — the oldest of the beasts and rather than us being glorious like God, mankind, because of sin, has stained their chromosomes; inside our DNA is not glorious but iniquitous (Psalm 51:5) — depraved.

Those not in Christ are depraved but not so depraved, like Lucifer, that they cannot be redeemed, so He provided hope for regeneration, “God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Those who believe in Jesus and trust Him for restoration, are new creatures in Christ; not mature, glorious creatures, but new creatures in the making. “Regeneration” begins with that small amount of faith. The new creature is finished when the regeneration process is completed just like the original generation.

God first imbues the soul with His Holy Spirit. The Light endowed within the human soul awakens the original Light, making it dominant again after lying dormant for millennia. Seeing the Light is recognizing God as the Maker and Progenitor. It is when the lost “beasts” come to realize their true Father is God in Heaven and forsake their earthly “father” the Devil (John 8:44).

Emancipated from the Wicked One, Father God adopts those with Christ (in Christ) as sons of God and legitimate heirs. The genes of the lost begin to change and the chromosomes are, perhaps, protected from the “Shadow” by the life-giving Light of the Holy Ghost which shields the DNA from darkness until the threat is removed. Jesus removed that threat at the crucifixion by propitiating His blood for remission of “sins that are past” (Rom 3:25) — genetic sins.

The first phase of regeneration is saved from sin. Christians still sin but God no longer recognizes it as sin because the genome of the Beast must still be overcome. That inherited nature will cease to exist when the Old Creature is destroyed, and Jesus has overcome the influences of the world (John 16:33). We are not expected to be glorious at that point in time because Christians still have depraved flesh that is weak to temptation and sin (Mat 26:41).

Therefore, Christians remain imperfect but improved. Their spirit is willing, but their flesh requires vast improvement. That comes when the “old creature” is finished. No longer a babe in Christ, those in Christ who have dead flesh receive their gain, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thes 4:16). That is “glorification” when the soul like Christ’s is put into incorruptible flesh and the regeneration process is complete; that is the called the “rapture” and is when Christians are snatched up. But a better description is “reglorified” by God breathing life unto the dust for a second and last time!

So, what are living Christians; they have yet to be glorified and remade in body and spirit? “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom 8:10). It is as if the body is dead and the flesh along with it. The body should cease its importance and the flesh succumb to its destiny — to die. Those in Christ walk in the Spirit; it is their new righteous nature that God sees and preserves.

However, you are not “saved” yet! Satan and his legions endeavor to revive the flesh by offering things of the flesh. He does not see the flesh as dead, but much like Christ; that it needs regeneration. Satan is a mocker and copies the things of God. Jude wrote about the last days, “There should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” (Jude 17:18). Those mockers act as if they are in Christ but all the while they retain their flesh that was once dead. Satan has revived their flesh in a sort of fake “resurrection” — not glorifying the flesh but magnifying it and leaving it corrupt!

So, by now, the “old creature” should have become obvious. That creature is the Lucifer, the Wicked One, called the “Serpent” because of his beastly nature with alien genetics. The “old creature” of humans are the now dominant genomes of the Beast, more dominant in them than at the creation wherein God was the dominant Genome. Man because he was in the Image of God, was to have dominion over the beasts (Gen 1:26) but because of original sin, the “Beast” (so called the “Serpent”) has dominion over mankind.

“Born again” begins the restoration process wherein first the nature of the beast in us is diminished, followed by a change in the flesh at glorification during the rapture. As such, mankind is indeed safe until it is finished, but saved once they are remade incorruptible (1 Cor 15:52).

(Picture credit; National Geographic)