Old Things Passed Away

Old things are passed away. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Now the year is nearly at an end, do not you find your old corruptions cleaving to you? Yea, the old man still whole and alive in you, just as you did at the beginning of the year, or at the beginning of days, when you first believed on Jesus, and were made a new creature in him? Do not you also see just the same reason to comply with these exhortations, as at first? “Put off the old man which is corrupt.” (Ephesians 4:22.) “Cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” (2 Corinthians 7:1.) Why, if so, how can it be said, “Old things are passed away?” Consider, St. Paul is not speaking of the old creation of fallen nature, but of the new creation in Christ Jesus. As men, and descendants from fallen Adam, all the sin and misery of our old nature abides with us. We are still in the flesh. In that dwells nothing but sin and evil. It is under the sentence, and must receive the wages of sin, death. But as believers in Christ, “we are passed from death to life.” (John 5:24.) Being in him by faith, we are new creatures in a new creation. Observe, in the foregoing verse St. Paul is speaking of knowing Christ, and men after the flesh. But now, says he, we have done with carnal views and fleshly knowledge. We are spiritual. We view and know things by faith, as new creatures in Christ. Hence, as we are passed from our old state, old things are passed away from us. Our old notions of God, of Christ, of salvation, our own free will, our legal righteousness, salvation by works, in whole or in part, etc., all are passed away. Yea, our delight in our old companions, in the bewitching vanities of this old world, which is under the curse, and our manner of living and walking in it, are passed away.

- excerpt from William Mason's A Spiritual Treasury For The Children of God, Volume 2, December 30