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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - 2 Corinthians 5:17 - 5:17
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As if the apostle had said, "If any one amongst you pretend to be a Christian indeed, ingrafted into Christ, by baptism and regeneration, and is a member of his body; he is by regeneration made a new man, all the faculties of his soul are renewed: his principles, affections, and practices, are all new: Old things are passed, or passing away daily, the old carnal inclinations of mind are wearing off, the old will is changed, the old life is reformed; and in a word, whatever was old and carnal, is now beome new and spiritual." Behold all things are become new: new affections, new inclinations, new dispositions, a new course, and a new conversation. Nothing is new physically; he is the same person, he has the same faculties: but all things are new qualitatively; he is renewed in the spirit of his mind.
Learn hence, 1. That all such as call themselves the disciples of Christ, and own themselves to be his followers, are and ought to be new creatures. This implies a real and inward, a thorough and prevailing change, both in heart and life; not a civil change, barely from profaneness to sobriety; not a sudden change, only under some great affliction or awakening providence; not a change from one sect or party of professors to another; but the change of the new creature consists in a new mind, a new will, a new judgment, new affections; in a new conversation, not in a new form and profession; the change of the new creature introduces the life of God, and produces the nearest likeness to God.
Learn, 2. That this new creation, wrought in a man by the word and Spirit God, is an indubitable evidence of his interest in Christ, and title to salvation; for where the new creature is, there all the saving graces of the Spirit are, as a pledge and an earnest of glory and happpiness.