Steven3
Lion King
Joined: 10 Jul 2007
Posts: 1205
Location: UK
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 Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:54 pm Post subject: 2 creations in the Bible |
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Hi | Quote: | Hello Steve
I was just wondering if you could give me the gist of your new creation / old creation. By creation do you mean covenant? Or are you speaking of 2 actual creations? And if so are they creations of people or creations of a different soul? Ok well thanks hope to hear from you.
Thanks |
Good question ~ worthy of a thread, so I will post this (anonymized)
1. First off we know there are two creations from:
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Galatians 6:15 For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
In those two verses of course the idea is more about a "new creature", a "new man", rather than the totality of creation, a new creation environment, but there is a new environment in the NT also. Ro8:21-22 for example.
2. In terms of imagery I guess the key verse is when Jesus breathes into the ten (Thomas and Judas weren't there) in John 20:22 where Jesus is acting out a parallel with Gen.2:7.
The other key parallel is the difference between Ecc11:5 and the quote of Ecc11:5 in John3:8.
In Gen2:7 and Ecc11:5 etc. the "breath/spirit/wind" entering Adam, or entering the womb of the pregnant woman, is very much a physical breath/spirit, no different from the breath/spirit/wind (ruakh) which was in the nostrils of the beasts that drowned in the flood. Totally different from Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek (and Southern Baptist) concepts of "spirit" as an immortal entity. In the OT, breath/spirit is primarily just that, breath ~ a puff of air in the lungs.
But in John 20:22 and John 3:8 the "breath/spirit/wind" which Christ breathes into the disciples isn't physical air ~ their lungs already have that, but is symbolic of a new life, being born again. It isn't anything to do with powers and gifts either, they had to wait another 47 days for those.
3. Is it the same as New Covenant? No, the new covenant ("in my blood") is parallel to the old covenant(s) of circumcision and sacrifice. Though the ideas clearly run alongside:
old creation -> new creation
old covenant -> new covenant.
4. They are creations of new people ("new men"), but not really creations of a different soul... there's no place in the NT which talks about a "new soul". In fact in the NT the adjective "soulish" is a bad word, in opposition to "spiritual". The NT word "soul" is more associated with the old creation, and the conflict of the new man having to live inside the old man after baptism. "Soulish" (psychikos) only occurs 4 times in the NT 1Co2:14,44,44,46 and is translated "natural" in the KJV.
Ephesians 4:24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
James 1:18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
5. We could go on forever, there are so many "new creation" verses in the NT. Sometimes the verses only appear years after having been shown there are 2 creations in the Bible:
1Co8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all (physical) things and for whom we exist,
and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all (spiritual) things and through whom we exist.
God bless
Steven |
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