"Newness of life" is a Hebraism for a new life. The new birth brings us into a new state. "Old things have passed away; all things have become new," says an Apostle: "for if any one be in Christ he is a new creature." A new spirit, a new heart, and an outward character corresponding to this change, are the effects of the regenerating process: "for the end of the charge," the grand result of the remedial system, is "love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." "Love is the fulfilling of the whole law," and the fruit of the whole gospel. It is the cardinal principle of all Christian behaviour, the soul of the new man, the breath of the new life. Faith works by no other rule. It is a working principle, and love is the rule by which it operates. The Spirit of God is the spirit of love and the health of a sound mind. Every pulsation of the new heart is the impulse of the spirit of love. Hence the brotherhood is beloved, and all mankind embraced in unbounded good will. When the tongue speaks, the hands and feet move and operate under the unrestrained guidance of this principle, we have the Christian character drawn to the life. For meekness, humility, mercy, sympathy, and active benevolence, are only the names of the various workings of this all renovating, invigorating, sanctifying, and happifying principle. "He that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him." [460]

      The Christian, or the new man, is then a philanthropist to the utmost extent of the meaning of that word. Truth and love have made him free from all the tyrannies of passion, from guilt, and fear, and shame; have filled him with courage, active and passive. Therefore, his enterprise, his capital enterprise, to which all others minister, is to take part with the Saviour in the salvation of the world. "If by any means I may save some," are not the words of Paul only, but of every new man. Are they merchants, mechanics, husbandmen; are they magistrates, lawyers, judges, or unofficial citizens; are they masters, servants, fathers, sons, brothers, neighbors; whatever, or wherever they may be, they live for God and his city, for the King and his Empire. They associate not with the children of wrath--the miser, the selfish, the prodigal, the gay, the proud, the slanderer, the tattler, the rake, the libertine, the drunkard, the thief, the murderer. Every new man has left these precincts; has broken his league with Satan and his slaves, and has joined himself to the family of God. These he complacently loves, those he pities, and does good to all.

      The character of the new man is an elevated character. Feeling himself a son and heir of God, he cultivates the temper, spirit, and behaviour, which correspond with so exalted a relation. He despises everything mean, grovelling, earthly, sensual, devilish. As the only begotten and well beloved Son of God is to be the model of his future personal glory, so the character which Jesus sustained amongst men, is the model of his daily imitation. His every day aspiration is--

The law of God is hid in his heart. The living oracles dwell in his mind; and he grows in favor with God as he grows in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ his Lord. As a newborn babe he desires the unadulterated milk of the word of God, that he may grow by it; for as the thirsty hart pants after the brooks of water, so pants his soul after God. Thus he lives to God, and walks with him. This is the character of the regenerate, of him that is born of God, of the new man in Christ Jesus. This is that change of heart, of life, and of character, which is the tendency and the fruit of the process of regeneration as taught and exemplified by the Apostles, and those commended by God, in their writings.

      We now proceed to offer a few remarks on physical regeneration, the second part of our subject.

[A. C.]      

Source:

Alexander Campbell. "The New Life." The Millennial Harbinger Extra 4 (August 1833): 356-357.

[MHA1 460-461]