Corporate nature of the new and old man (part 1)

It was almost 10 years ago that I first understood the verse from Ephesians 2, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus...." There were two things that struck me. First we are his workmanship, we are his work. Like a craftsman with his tools we are formed according to his will. And just like any piece created by a master craftsman, his style, his characteristics, his touch is found in the created piece. This workmanship is not the workmanship of God when he created man at the beginning (although also in that creation we carry his style) but rather his workmanship when he created us in Christ Jesus. And that was the second thing which I noted, our place of creation. We are created in Christ Jesus. In fact it is a necessity for all to be created in Christ Jesus. Later in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul (by the Spirit) writes it like this, "therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." We are created in Christ, we are a new creation, we are born again. A weakness in modern teaching is that poor needy souls are told to hold on the promises of Scripture, they must be new because the Scripture says so. But in reality they remain just as they were, old not new, struggling just as before. Those around them convince them that they are new and they struggle on, often to despair. It is God's will that you become new. He wants to create you new, in Christ Jesus. We wants to work and labour to produce a new thing. He wants to. He loves to. He sent His son so he could.

Having seen the power of a second creation, I read on... In verse 15 of Ephesians 2 it is written, "... that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace." A new man, a new type of man, one that has peace with God. What great promises. But I had a question, why just one new man? Why didn't the Spirit say something like, "... create in himself one new man, the first of many new men, who have peace..." Why only one new man?

That is what we will look at in our next study.

Blessings,

Gary