Page 47 - Overcoming Addiction

Chapter 7 - A New Creature

his book is written both for those who are strangers to Christ, as well as those
Twho are Christians. I have found that many men and women who have been
Christians for years have not come to an understanding of the ways of God, and
even the foundational principles of Yahweh’s work among mankind is little
comprehended. Partly due to the many misconceptions there are regarding life in
Christ, many who have long been Believers are not walking in victory over sin.
This chapter seeks to explain one more critical truth that we might proceed in the
following chapters to begin to address a practical daily walk that will lead to
victory over every addiction and besetting sin.
Many men and women hold to the misconception that when they became a
Christian they remained essentially the same, but Christ forgave their sins. Not
understanding what had changed in their life, they believed they would be more
pleasing to God simply because they would now try harder. Such a mindset is far
from the truth.
When a man or woman receives the Holy Spirit of Christ into their being, the
Holy Spirit transforms them into an entirely new type of creature than they were
before. They receive a new dimension to their being that other men and women
lack. In truth, there are two entirely different types of men and women walking
this earth today. Some are what can be called an old creation, and some are a new
creation. The apostle Paul states it this way.

II Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed
away; behold, new things have come.

If you are “in Christ” then you are no longer the same type of man or woman
that you were formerly. A very fundamental change has occurred. This change is
so radical that it is almost as if you had become another species among God’s
creation. The Scriptures tell us exactly what has changed in us. In the following
passage the apostle Paul contrasts the first creature which is seen in Adam, to the
new creature that is observed in the person of Christ. The word Adam means man.
Therefore we see Paul referring to Christ as the second Adam, or second Man.
What Paul is declaring is that there are now two distinct types of men walking this
earth.

I Corinthians 15:45-49
So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last
Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the
natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the
second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are
earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. And just
as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly.