[Note: The following is the prepared text for a split sermon given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, September 23, 2023.]

When we deal with the subject of difficult scriptures, one of the categories of difficult scriptures are those that are difficult because of questions of translation. A great deal of the difficulty of the scripture that this message focuses on is found in one translation of the Bible, so I would like to begin today by asking for a show of hands for how many people here read and study the Bible in the King James Version? [Slight pause.] It should be noted that this particular version of the Bible presents a particular difficulty in understanding what is meant by the scripture in question today, though admittedly other translations, as we will see, also leave the precise idiom being used in this subject as a bit of a mystery. Let us therefore turn to the scripture in question, 2 Corinthians 5:17. 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

The first complexity of this particular scripture comes, for those who use the King James Version, is that this verse reads differently in that version. It reads: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. ” Whether we view this passage as referring to us as believers as a new creature or a new creation, it is puzzling to us what exactly this means in the context. In our efforts to understand this phrase “new creature” in the King James Version or “new creation” in the New King James Version, let us first look at the Greek words for this, and examine the expression as it appears in the Bible, where it appears exactly twice, both of them in the writings of Paul. Besides examining the passages that use this whole phrase and their biblical context , we will look at some related passages that shed some light on the meaning After examining the biblical context of how this phrase is used, we will then look at this idiom in extrabiblical literature to see the meaning that Paul was bringing to bear through this passage. Finally, we will examine what it all means to us besides being an academic exercise.

First things first, though, let’s look at the Greek here. The phrase “new creature” or “new creation” is καινὴ κτίσις in the Greek, which we would transliterate as kainos ktisis. Kainos is a common word for “new” or “renewed,” and it appears 44 times in the Bible. Ktisis is translated in a variety of ways, as something that is created, the process of creation, formation or the practice of forming something, building, or even ordinance, it appears 19 times in the Bible. The phrase together appears only twice in the Bible, here in 2 Corinthians 5:17, which we have already read, and in Galatians 6:15. Let us turn now to Galatians 6:15, as this too is a parallel difficult scripture that is difficult for the exact same reasons that 2 Corinthians 5:17 is. Galatians 6:15, coming at almost the very end of Galatians, reads as follows: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” This too is equally puzzling, especially because it too reads as “new creature” in the King James Version.

When we are faced with a biblical mystery, like a scripture or phrase or word that does not immediately make sense to us, the first step that we should take is to try to take the scripture we are wrestling with and examine it in its biblical context. As we have previously seen, this particular phrase only occurs twice, both in the writings of Paul, so let us look at the passages in which these verses appear, starting with the context of 2 Corinthians 5:1-17 and then moving to Galatians 6:7-18.

Let us first look at 2 Corinthians 5:1-17, looking at it in order of the three passages included in that section of scripture. The first section is verses one through eight, which focus on the passing and temporary nature of the physical creation, including our physical bodies. 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 reads: “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.  For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.  Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.  For we walk by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” Next, in verses nine through eleven, we see a discussion of the judgment of the body and the works of the flesh that will take place when we are resurrected at the return of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 reads: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.  Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.” Third, we see in verses twelve through seventeen a renewed focus on the spirit and knowing by the spirit and not boasting or judging according to the flesh. 2 Corinthians 5:12-17 reads: “For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.  For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.  For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Let us now turn our attention to Galatians 6:7-18 to see what context it provides to the matter of being a new creation. First, let us look at verses seven through ten, which once again point to the problems of focusing on the flesh rather than the spirit. Galatians 6:7-10 reads: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.  And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Next, let us examine verses eleven through fifteen, which focus on the problem of boasting in the flesh and neglecting the importance of the circumcision of the heart. Galatians 6:11-15 reads: “See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!  As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.  For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.  But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” Third, we see in verses sixteen through eighteen a further contrast between the wounds and scars Paul bears in the flesh as opposed to the spiritual blessings that Jesus Christ gives to believers. Galatians 6:16-18 reads: “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”

From these two chapters that give the context for our difficult scriptures, we get some related lessons, which can be briefly summarized. 2 Corinthians 5 and Galatians 6 contrast the temporary and passing nature of the flesh with the lasting nature of the spirit. Both passages focus on the spiritual blessings that come from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who died in the flesh and was raised in the spirit. Also, both of these chapters warn us against boasting in the flesh and remind us that we will be judged for what our bodies do, rather than having glory in our physical bodies when we stand before Jesus Christ to be held accountable for how we have lived our lives. It is striking that Paul covers such similar ground in his letters to both the Galatians and the Corinthians when talking about the issue of believers in Christ being a new creature or a new creation.

Although these are the only two passages that use the phrase “new creature” or “new creation” in them, they at least hint at other passages that deal with related concerns. Let us examine three of these, as they help to show us as readers some of the larger social context in which Paul was writing. First, when we as believers think of the new creation, especially at this time of year when we are near the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day or the Last Great Day, our thoughts are often about the new heavens and the new earth that will come after the millennium. While our attention is rightly focuses mainly on the blessings of eternal life for all of those who have submitted to God and to Jesus Christ in their day of salvation, be it in this life as it is for us or in the Great White Throne Judgment for the mass of humanity, it is worth focusing a little bit, at least, on those passages that remind of us who is not going to enter the New Jerusalem that we long for. We find the last of these statements in Revelation 22:14-15. Revelation 22:14-15 reads: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.  But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Similar lists of sins, some of them much more longer and detailed, can be found in other place sin the Bible, especially in the writings of the apostle Paul.

One of these, the longest of these descriptions, comes from Romans 1. Rather than listing that fearsome list of sins, I would like to point to the context of the problem of the worship of images that precedes that discussion and that is the original sin, it may be said, of the heathen society of Paul’s own day that led them to be condemned to wallow in various types of sin that are also familiar in our own day. We find this warning about the idolatry of the Greeks and Romans and other heathen peoples in Romans 1:18-25. Romans 1:18-25 reads: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

In this passage Paul identifies the essential spiritual problem of his own time and our own, in that our refusal to acknowledge the authority of God or to draw the right spiritual implications and conclusions from the physical creation that God has provided us, or to accept the authority of God’s law and to live by its commands leads humanity to avoid recognizing God for who He is and instead worshipping false gods of their own creation, which in turn leads them to be given up to various sorts of immorality because they have worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. This is precisely the sort of behavior that Paul was condemning in 2 Corinthians 5 and Galatians 6, pointing out that believers should not behave in this fashion.

Let us examine one more aspect of the biblical context where the relationship between God as Creator and humanity as His image–especially redeemed and converted people like ourselves–is especially obvious. From the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1:26-27, we are told that God the Father and Jesus Christ created mankind in the image and likeness of themselves. The author of Hebrews, at the very beginning of his messages, captures the very Pauline discussion of God as Creator and human beings as being in His image in the first four verses to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 1:1-4 reads: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

We should note here at the word for image used in Romans 1:23 when talking about the idolatry of the heathen people of the Greco-Roman world of Paul’s own day is εἰκόν, transliterated eikon, which is the cognate for the word that we use for icons, those little images that we use on our phones and computers, which in the Greek meant statue, representation, and image. In contrast, the word used to describe Jesus Christ’s physical body as being the express image of the spiritual form that God and Jesus Christ have is a word which only appears here, χαρακτὴρ, transliterated charakter, from where we take our English word character, which is an engraved exact copy of the original in a new material or medium from the original stamp, similar to the way that ancient coins were stamped with the images of various rulers of the regimes that minted those coins.

Paul’s writing about the connection between creation, including our creations, and the new creation that God was working within us and for everything else, was part of a larger conversation going on at the time within the Jewish world as a whole, and while we do not want to delve too much into extrabiblical literature, it is worthwhile to get some sense that Paul’s writing about the subject was part of a larger context. There was, in general, according to writers like Todd Hanneken, a great deal of interest and controversy over what “new creation” meant in the Hebrew writings of the second temple period and beyond. Starting from verses in places like the last chapters of Isaiah, Jeremiah 31, the final chapters of Ezekiel, and Zechariah about God’s new creation, new priesthood, and new covenants that would replace the old ones, a lot of ideas and speculations were in the air about what that meant. Some sources, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, were pessimistic about much remaining from the current world to the world to come, while other writings, like 1 Enoch, were far more optimistic. Similarly, while extrabiblical and apocryphal texts like Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon view the judgment of mankind being a matter of mere natural consequences, the New Testament and other writings like 1 Enoch view it as involving supernatural or even divine involvement. Similarly, the New Testament (like 1 Enoch, for example, but unlike Sirach again) points to a need for a new covenant and new priesthood to tear down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles to be recipients of God’s grace and love.

It is worthwhile to explain at least briefly the logic behind the debates over the new creation within Jewish circles because they have relevance for our own struggles over identity. First, within the religious system of the Old Testament, the Jews viewed themselves in a privileged position as having a closer relationship to God than other peoples and nations. Would this privileged position have to be given up if God’s universal authority as Lord and Creator was recognized by others or the whole world? Second, it was obvious to many observers that the Jewish people themselves were not all genuine believers, but some of them had become corrupted by Hellenism and other human philosophies brought by the Greeks and later the Romans, and needed to be either dealt with via divine judgment or brought back into a right relationship with God before the whole earth could be redeemed. This implied some sort of staged process by which God would refine His own people first and then seek to restore the whole world. Related to this second view was a third area of debate about the institutions of this world. Were the human institutions like the work of the Levites and the Aaronic priesthood and the political systems of human rulership able to be restored or was humanity and its institutions so irredeemably corrupt that such systems had to be replaced altogether. Central to all of these debates was an understanding that a just and loving God who had created all the earth and all peoples for His purposes could not have done so just to leave them in their idolatry and false worship, but something had to be done for them and some place had to be found for them in the better world that God would certainly bring to restore or replace this present evil one.

What does all of this mean for us? In this message so far, we have seen the biblical context of the question of images and the complicated nature of the problem of how God is to be represented on this earth. While God has always wanted to be represented by believers who had internalized His character and who modeled His laws and His ways before the world around them, by and large humanity has rejected the laws and commandments and statutes and judgments of God and has preferred to create God in its own corrupt image rather than to allow God to transform us into His image. That is ultimately the choice every human being must face, whether to try to turn God into something corruptible like we are so that we can turn our attention away from His ways and avoid the difficulty of striving after obedience to God’s laws, or we can allow God to transform us from the inside out so that we can be proper models and examples of obedience to His ways to a rebellious and disobedient world. No other choices are available to human beings but to do one or the other. We have seen that this choice is not only something that is discussed in the Bible, but it was a part of the larger religious discourse of the time that we find in extrabiblical literature as well that Paul especially was knowledgeable of and responsive too in his discussions with others influenced by both rabbinic Judaism in Galatians 6 or the idolatry of the heathen Greco-Roman world of his time. Just as was the case with Paul’s audience, the same choice that the Bible presented to them, we too are faced with. Either we participate in making images of God like the false views of God that we see all around us, or we allow God to remake us after His own image and likeness. Which will we choose?