The Old Creation. Before we talk about New Creation, we need to be reminded of the Old Creation. The Old Creation is described in Genesis 1; God formed the world as we know it in six days including Adam and Eve. God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. But shortly, God's Sabbath rest was broken by man’s sin (Rom. 5:12). In John 5, we find that because sin entered, the Father and Son could not rest (John 5:17). God cannot have sin in His presence, so He dwelt in thick darkness, at a distance from creature man. Still, even separated from sin, He could not rest with sin in His creation. God must either destroy the corrupted creation out of His sight, as He did in the flood (Gen. 6:7) and promised not to do again (Gen. 9:11), or He must work in grace to redeem man from sin. His love, of course, made Him work, for Christ came “not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17)! Adam was the “head" of that old creation, a fact shown by the animals coming to Adam to be named. All who descend from Adam – his race – “bear the image of the earthly” (1 Cor. 15:49). When Adam “fell” through sin, his whole race fell with him (Rom. 5:12-end). The wages of sin is death, and so “in Adam all die.” Those of Adam’s race are characterized by certain qualities and behaviors, referred to as the “Old Man”. Paul summarized the old man as a character that “corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts”. This is the old creation.

The New Creation. When Christ rose from the dead, He became the beginning and head of a New Creation (Rev. 3:14) where sin can never come! God can find all His rest and satisfaction in the Person and work of His Beloved Son! It is into this New Creation, far beyond the reach of sin, that we have been brought by our death and resurrection with Christ; "if any man be in Christ, there is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). That New Creation will be extended out to the physical universe when God's dispensational purposes are accomplished to the glory of Christ. The full “rest of God” will not be fully restored until the elements melt, and God makes a new heavens and earth (Rev. 21:1-8). The Old Creation began with a heavens and earth, and was completed with a head, the First Man placed over it. The New Creation began with a head, the Second Man, and will be completed with a new heavens and earth! Several features of the New Creation are: