The New Creation under Attack.

16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2. Cor. 5)

The New Creation is you, believer in Jesus Christ; the New Creation is me; The New Creation is the spiritual reality that a believer in Jesus Christ has been made alive spiritually, and this brand new person is joined to Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit inseparably. The problem with New Creation is that it lives in the same sin cursed body in a sin cursed world with the selfish habits and bent toward self centeredness the Bible calls the flesh. Now, Jesus told the Pharisees of his day that "you belong to your father, the devil. It is safe to say that the nature of our flesh is the nature of the devil. Now, just as satan attacked God's creation right away, so, the flesh attacks the New Creation. Yes, that is the enemy within. Satan is nothing...Christ stripped him of all his power. The flesh is the true enemy that attacks the New Creation daily; 24/7. So many believers don't even get to first base spiritually because they think their flesh is their true identity. And here is the rub. The first attack the flesh hurls on the New Creation is the same attack in that satan used in the garden. The flesh gets religious, dresses up and goes to church and says, "You have to use the knowledge of good and evil to make yourself like God." It puts the New Creation right back under the law. See, the lie in the garden that we often miss is "you need this knowledge tobe like God." Adam and Eve were already like GOD!!!! "God made man in His own image; in the image of GOD He created them." Likewise, the New Creation is "created to be like God in Christ Jesus." "10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (romans 6) "20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." (john 14) It is the same lie; the New Creation is in Christ, is sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, and has Christ living in and through him/her. God is growing us from the inside out, we are dead to the law, dead to sin and called to rest in His power. The flesh attacks from the flank saying, "here is what you have to do to be like God, to get God to bless you and keep in His favor. Find out what is good and do it, and find out what is evil and don't do it." Look at Romans 7 to see how well that works. The New Creation is dead to the law and free to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit--the personal leadership of the Holy Spirit. We are free from the law's condemnation, the law's demands, and the law's authority in our lives. We are free and have the authority from God to love one another: "13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flelsh, rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." The latter part of this verse addresses the other attack of the flesh which is indulgence, but that is so much easier to see. It is the subtle lie that is the most vicious attack, and it often comes from the pulpit!