{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1925","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":17,"verse_to":17},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: By whom also we exhort you in the Lord to abstain from your old conversation, vain bonds, separations, observances, distinction of meats, and daily washings: for \"old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.\"<br/><i>— Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 6</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: We are then truly free when God orders our lives, that is, forms and creates us not as human beings—this he has already done—but as good people, which he is now doing by his grace, that we may indeed be new creatures in Christ Jesus. Accordingly the prayer: \"Create in me a clean heart, O God.\".<br/><i>— Enchiridion 9.31</i></p><p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: But, if we must go on with our discussion and make a deeper study, let us from this point contemplate especially the divine power of the Holy Spirit. We find three creations mentioned in the Scripture; the first, the education from nonexistence into existence; the second, the change from worse to better; and the third, the resurrection of the dead. In these you will find the Holy Spirit co-operating with the Father and the Son.… Now, humanity is created a second time through baptism, \"for if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.\"<br/><i>— Letter 8</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: The Old Testament was good, but without spiritual understanding it dies with the letter. The New Testament, through grace, restores the odor of life.<br/><i>— SERMON 168.4</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: the whole world has its circumscription in man, because man, as has been frequently stated, is the bond which holds all the world together. When man, therefore, rose again on the same night of the Lord's day, incorruptible and immortal and unchangeable, he gave a pledge to the whole creation visible and invisible that it would obtain like benefits. Wherefore the Apostle saith: To sum up all things in the Christ, both the things that are in heaven and that are in the earth; and: If any one be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things have become new<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 2</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: If any one be in Christ he is a new creature—old things are passed away, behold! all things are become new; here speaking of all things as new, or of the renovation of all existing things; for, when he speaks of the summing up and the new creation, he signifies by each the same thing, that each is effected in Christ. For just as Christ according to the flesh, when risen from the dead was not a different Christ from the Christ who had died, but was the same who had suffered death, yet in like manner as He was victorious in His resurrection over sufferings and death, so also the whole creation, while not perishing but retaining its identity, is changed into a better condition.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 7</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: \"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the former things have passed away.\" The \"new creation\" is the apostolic rule. And what this is Paul makes abundantly clear in another section, saying: \"In order that I might present to myself the church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish.\" A new creature he called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a pure and blameless soul removed from evil and wickedness and shamefulness. For, when the soul hates sin, it closely unites itself with God, as far as it can, in the regimen of virtue; having been transformed in life, it receives the grace of the Spirit to itself, becomes entirely new again and is recreated.<br/><i>— ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: This Logos the Father in the latter days sent forth, no longer to speak by a prophet, and not wishing that the Word, being obscurely proclaimed, should be made the subject of mere conjecture, but that He should be manifested, so that we could see Him with our own eyes. This Logos, I say, the Father sent forth, in order that the world, on beholding Him, might reverence Him who was delivering precepts not by the person of prophets, nor terrifying the soul by an angel, but who was Himself-He that had spoken-corporally present amongst us. This Logos we know to have received a body from a virgin, and to have remodelled the old man by a new creation. And we believe the Logos to have passed through every period in this life, in order that He Himself might serve as a law for every age, and that, by being present (amongst) us, He might exhibit His own manhood as an aim for all men. And that by Himself in person He might prove that God made nothing evil, and that man possesses the capacity of self-determination, inasmuch as he is able to will and not to will, and is endued with power to do both. This Man we know to have been made out of the compound of our humanity. For if He were not of the same nature with ourselves, in vain does He ordain that we should imitate the Teacher. For if that Man happened to be of a different substance from us, why does He lay injunctions similar to those He has received on myself, who am born weak; and how is this the act of one that is good and just? In order, however, that He might not be supposed to be different from us, He even underwent toil, and was willing to endure hunger, and did not refuse to feel thirst, and sunk into the quietude of slumber. He did not protest against His Passion, but became obedient unto death, and manifested His resurrection. Now in all these acts He offered up, as the first-fruits, His own manhood, in order that thou, when thou art in tribulation, mayest not be disheartened, but, confessing thyself to be a man (of like nature with the Redeemer), mayest dwell in expectation of also receiving what the Father has granted unto this Son.<br/><i>— The Refutation of All Heresies - Book 10</i></p><p><b>Ignatius of Antioch</b>: Be not deceived with strange doctrines, \"nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies,\" and things in which the Jews make their boast. \"Old things are passed away: behold, all things have become new.\" For if we still live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace. For the divinest prophets lived according to Jesus Christ. On this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is one God, the Almighty, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His Word, not spoken, but essential. For He is not the voice of an articulate utterance, but a substance begotten by divine power, who has in all things pleased Him that sent Him.<br/><i>— Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: You heard today that the blessed Paul … told us in his letter to the Corinthians: \"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.\" To prevent us from interpreting the text as applying to a visible creation, he stated: \"If any man is in Christ,\" teaching us that if any man has gone over to the side of those who believe in Christ, he is an example of a new creature. Tell me, if we see new heavens and other portions of his creation, is there a profit in this which can match the benefit we gain from seeing a man converted from evil to virtue and changing from the side of error to that of truth? This is what the blessed Paul called a new creature, and so immediately he went on to say: \"The former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new!\" By this he briefly showed that those who, by their faith in Christ, had put off like an old cloak the burden of their sins, those who had been set free from their error and been illumined by the light of justification, had put on this new and shining cloak, this royal robe. This is why he said: \"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new.\"<br/><i>— BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 4.12</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Do you see why faith in Christ and the return to virtue are called a new creation? I exhort you, therefore, both you who have previously been initiated and you who have just now enjoyed the Master's generosity, let us all listen to the exhortation of the apostle, who tells us: \"The former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new.\" Let us forget the whole past and, like citizens in a new world, let us reform our lives, and let us consider in our every word and deed the dignity of him who dwells within us.<br/><i>— BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 4.16</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: For seeing he had exhorted unto virtue from His love, he now leads them on to this from what has been actually done for them; wherefore also he added, \"If any man is in Christ,\" he is \"a new creature.\" \"If any,\" saith he, \"have believed in Him, he has come to another creation, for he hath been born again by the Spirit.\" So that for this cause also, he says, we ought to live unto Him, not because we are not our own only, nor because He died for us only, nor because He raised up our First-fruits only, but because we have also come unto another life. See how many just grounds he urges for a life of virtue. For on this account he also calls the reformation by a grosser name, in order to show the transition and the change to be great. Then following out farther what he had said, and showing how it is \"a new creation,\" he adds, \"The old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.\"</p><p>What old things? He means either sins and impieties, or else all the Judaical observances. Yea rather, he means both the one and the other. \"Behold, all things are become new.\"<br/><i>— Homily 11 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: To-day, the most holy assembly, bearing upon its shoulders the heavenly joy that was for generations expected, imparts it to the race of man. \"Old things are passed away\".<br/>With good right, therefore, has the sacred trumpet sounded, \"Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.\"<br/><i>— Methodius Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: When by Jeremiah He gave this precept, \"Break up for yourselves new pastures,\" does He not turn away from the old state of things? And when by Isaiah He proclaims how \"old things were passed away; and, behold, all things, which I am making, are new,\" does He not advert to a new state of things? We have generally been of opinion that the destination of the former state of things was rather promised by the Creator, and exhibited in reality by Christ, only under the authority of one and the same God, to whom appertain both the old things and the new.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book IV</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now, if the Creator indeed promised that \"the ancient things should pass away,\" to be superseded by a new course of things which should arise, whilst Christ marks the period of the separation when He says, \"The law and the prophets were until John\" -thus making the Baptist the limit between the two dispensations of the old things then terminating-and the new things then beginning, the apostle cannot of course do otherwise, (coming as he does) in Christ, who was revealed after John, than invalidate \"the old things\" and confirm \"the new,\" and yet promote thereby the faith of no other god than the Creator, at whose instance it was foretold that the ancient things should pass away.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \"If therefore any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old; things are passed away; behold, all things are become new; \" and so is accomplished the prophecy of Isaiah.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: All the rest of his precepts, as we have shown sufficiently, when treating of them as they occurred in another epistle, emanated from the Creator, who, while predicting that \"old things were to pass away,\" and that He would \"make all things new,\" commanded men \"to break up fresh ground for themselves,\" and thereby taught them even then to put off the old man and put on the new.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But when the Word of God descended into flesh,-(flesh) not unsealed even by marriage,-and \"the Word was made flesh,\" -(flesh) never to be unsealed by marriage,-which was to find its way to the tree not of incontinence, but of endurance; which was to taste from that tree not anything sweet, but something bitter; which was to pertain not to the infernal regions, but to heaven; which was to be precinct not with the leaves of lasciviousness, but the flowers of holiness; which was to impart to the waters its own purities-thenceforth, whatever flesh (is) \"in Christ\" has lost its pristine soils, is now a thing different, emerges in a new state, no longer (generated) of the slime of natural seed, nor of the grime of concupiscence, but of \"pure water\" and a \"clean Spirit.<br/><i>— On Modesty</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Plainly we do, if we are observers of Jewish ceremonies, of legal solemnities: for those the apostle unteaches, suppressing the continuance of the Old Testament which has been buried in Christ, and establishing that of the New. But if there is a new creation in Christ, our solemnities too will be bound to be new: else, if the apostle has erased all devotion absolutely \"of seasons, and days, and months, and years,\" why do we celebrate the passover by an annual rotation in the first month? Why in the fifty ensuing days do we spend our time in all exultation? Why do we devote to Stations the fourth and sixth days of the week, and to fasts the \"preparation-day? \" Anyhow, you sometimes continue your Station even over the Sabbath,-a day never to be kept as a fast except at the passover season, according to a reason elsewhere given.<br/><i>— On Fasting</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Those who believe in Christ have entered a new life. They must be born again in baptism and renounce their former sins.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 317</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"daa886e140ca7afd1384be6b16649e882530ef48b917b6d4791a8e79a6463e4d","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1925,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"222abc3b107ae3f9ae4893952cf21db140ac661364c70b91404d1f5179c97ade","translator":null,"work":null}