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In the initial stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of regeneration, the believers are made a new creation by being regenerated, by receiving the Holy Spirit, by having God’s eternal life, and by being renewed.
When man was first created, he was not crooked, wicked, or unclean, but upright, good, and clean (Eccl. 7:29). At that time man was without sin, corruption, or defect; therefore, in the eyes of God man was very good (Gen. 1:31). However, through the fall Satan entered into man with the satanic life (John 8:44; 1 John 3:10), man became mixed and unclean, and he also became the old man. Furthermore, sin (Rom. 7:23) and lust were constituted into the human body, because Satan’s life, the poisonous element of sin, was mixed into it; therefore, the human body was transmuted and became flesh (Gen. 3:7). Thus, man became the devil’s possession (1 John 3:8), being obedient to the evil spirits (Eph. 2:2). Not only so, man is also brought forth in iniquity (Psa. 51:5), his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9), and nothing good dwells in his flesh, which is filled with all kinds of wicked things (Rom. 7:18; Mark 7:20-23). Moreover, he is at enmity with God, not subject to the law of God, nor can he be, and he cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8). Therefore, man needs to be renewed. Only through renewing can God dispense the divine essence of the new creation into man, that man may pass from his old state into a wholly new one, from the old creation into the status of a new creation.
All the work of renewing that God does in us is carried out by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). The work of the Holy Spirit within us begins with regeneration and continues with renewing. The Holy Spirit renews us by imparting the divine essence into our being that we may become a new creation. He is the divine Person, the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God who has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. He washes and renews us with the divine essence that we may become a new creation, having the divine life and nature, and may be heirs of God in His eternal life, inheriting all the riches of the Triune God. Therefore, renewing is carried out by the Holy Spirit.
God does the renewing work in us through the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). The washing of regeneration is the process of God’s new creation to make us a new man. It is a reconditioning, remaking, or remodeling, with life. This washing of regeneration begins with our being born again and continues with the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The washing of regeneration begins in us at the time of our regeneration, through which we obtain from God His life and nature. This divine life and nature cause us to be delivered from our natural life and nature, which through the fall have become defiled. Thus, when we are delivered from our natural life and nature through God’s divine life and nature, we are cleansed from all defilement. This purging is carried out through the washing of regeneration at the time of our new birth. Immediately following this, the Holy Spirit continues to do the work of renewing within us, imparting into us the divine essence of the new creation. The divine elements of the new creation produce in us a metabolic change that causes the old and natural elements within us to be replaced. This is the continuing work carried out by the washing of regeneration together with the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Both the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are a continual working in us throughout our whole life until the completion of the new creation.
Since by being renewed we have received the divine essence of the new creation, we are made a new creation. This new creation is in contrast to the old creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The old creation is our old man in Adam (Eph. 4:22), our natural being by birth, without the divine life and nature; the new creation is the new man in Christ (Eph. 4:24), our being which is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God’s life and the divine nature (John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4), with Christ as its constituents (Col. 3:10-11). It is this new creation that fulfills God’s eternal purpose by expressing God in the divine sonship. This is the result of God’s renewing work in the believers through the Holy Spirit.
Since we are renewed through regeneration to receive the divine essence, we are also made heirs of God, who are qualified to inherit the estate of God the Father (Rom. 4:14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; 4:7), according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:7). This eternal life, which is our enjoyment in this age and our hope in the coming age, is not only for us to live and enjoy God in this age, but also for us to inherit all the riches of what God is to us in the coming age and in eternity. Hence, we have the hope of eternal life. According to this hope we are made heirs of God to inherit all His riches for eternity. This also is an issue of our being renewed by the Holy Spirit.
As a result of our being renewed, we are made a new creation, which is the new man in Christ (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10). This new man was created by Christ, who through the cross abolished in His flesh the law of commandments in ordinances and broke down the middle wall of partition, thus creating the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers in Himself into the new man.
In order to create in Himself one new man, Christ terminated the entire old creation on the cross and abolished the separating ordinances that caused enmity between peoples.
As the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), Christ died on the cross in the old creation, thus terminating the entire old creation. When Christ was crucified in His flesh on the cross, the entire old creation was included in Him. According to Hebrews 10:20, the veil in the temple typifies the flesh of Christ. On the veil cherubim were embroidered, signifying all the creatures. When Christ was crucified on the cross, the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51), and the cherubim on it also were rent. This shows that when Christ’s flesh died on the cross, all the creatures also were crucified together with this flesh. Therefore, the death of Christ not only dealt with sin and the flesh, destroyed Satan and the world belonging to him, and terminated the old man, but it also ended the entire old creation.
The death of Christ abolished the separating ordinances that cause enmity between peoples. On the cross Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15). The law of the commandments in ordinances does not refer to the law of moral commandments but to the law of the ritual commandments, such as the ordinances of circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and eating certain foods. These ordinances were given by God to the Jews because of man’s flesh. The principal one among them is circumcision, which is for the cutting off of man’s flesh. In addition, the Jews were required to keep the Sabbath and to observe many regulations concerning their diet. This created a great distinction and separation between the Jews and the Gentiles, which became the cause of enmity between them (Eph. 2:14). Therefore, in order to produce the new man, Christ needed to break down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles by abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances and thus removing the enmity between them.
It was in His flesh that Christ abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances. While Christ was in His flesh on the cross, all the ordinances also were nailed with Him to the cross (Col. 2:14). Through this, Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, broke down the middle wall of partition, slew the enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles, and created the two in Himself into one new man.
The new man was created in Christ Himself (Eph. 2:15). Christ is the sphere and the means in and by which the new man was created. Apart from being in Him, we could not have been created into one new man. Christ died in His flesh, abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances and terminating all the negative things; then in resurrection He became the wonderful Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). It is in this wonderful Spirit, who is the resurrected Christ Himself, that we have been created into one new man. Therefore, the new man was created in Christ Himself.
This phrase “in Himself” (Eph. 2:15) indicates that Christ was not only the Creator of the new man, but also the sphere in which, the means by which, and the essence with which the new man was created. With Himself as the essence and in Himself, He created the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man. Therefore, Christ is the essence of the new man. Through Christ’s being the essence of the new man, God’s divine nature has been wrought into humanity. In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man. In the creation of the one new man, however, God’s nature has been wrought into man to make His divine nature one entity with humanity. Christ then became the essence of this entity—the new man. This also is the result of God’s renewing work in us.
Through renewing God dispenses the divine essence of the new creation into man, that man may pass from his old state into a wholly new one, from the old creation into the status of a new creation. Man needs to be renewed not only because he has become the old man and the flesh through his fall and corruption, but also because he does not have God’s essence in him. All the work of renewing that God does in us is carried out by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit imparts God’s essence into our being that we may become the new creation with God’s life and nature. Furthermore, God renews us through the washing of regeneration. This washing of regeneration begins with our being born again and, together with the renewing of the Holy Spirit, continues to work in us, purging away all the old and natural elements. As a result of being renewed, we are made a new creation, which is the new man in Christ, having God’s life and nature and with Christ as its constituents, that we may become heirs of God, who are qualified to inherit all the estate of God the Father, according to the hope of eternal life. Moreover, by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, Christ created the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers in Himself into one new man, and He also became the essence of this new man.
