2Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.”

Marxism is a political ideology focused on a materialist, atheistic interpretation of class relations and social conflict that uses two opposing viewpoints when defining humanity: “Oppressed” versus “Oppressors.”

American Marxism recreates “Oppressed versus Oppressor” roles: Hamas support at universities (Oppressed = Palestinians, Oppressor = Israel), Systemic Racism (Oppressed = blacks, Oppressor = whites), LGBTQ+ (Oppressed = redefined marriage/gender, Oppressor = biblical marriage/gender).

America is now a post-Christian culture. We have replaced biblical instruction with man’s “wisdom” in an attempt to create a better world. But the fruit of this Marxism is, like every version in history, clearly failing.

Watchman Nee, in “The Normal Christian Life,” explains 5 Truths on how the Cross and Resurrection of Christ are the keys to this better world. If we continue rejecting God’s Word, we will continue to fail.

Truth #1 = God wanted me for Himself, but He could not bring me as I am into that which He purposed for me. So, He first did away with me by the Cross, and then by the Resurrection provided a new life for me.

Truth #2 = The greatest negative in the universe is the Cross. With it, God wiped out everything that was not of Himself. The greatest positive in the universe is the Resurrection. Through it, God brought into being all He will have in the new world. So, the Resurrection stands at the threshold of the new creation. The Cross ends all that belongs to the old creation. The Resurrection introduces all that pertains to the new.

Truth #3 = Understanding the Cross: 3 Facts
1) The Cross is God’s declaration that all that is of the old creation – the first Adam – must die. God gathered up in Jesus Christ all that was of Adam and crucified Him. In Christ, all of Adam was done away.

2) Salvation by the Cross is not about my sins nor the power of sin, but the world system. I am in Satan’s world system. To be saved is to exit Satan’s world system and enter God’s. When Noah’s family entered the ark by faith, it was not to avoid drowning. They left the old world system and entered a new one.

3) The Cross is not only Christ’s personally – an “individual” Cross. It is a “corporate” Cross that includes you and me. Like Noah’s ark, God put us into His Son and crucified us in Him. In the last Adam (Jesus Christ) He has wiped out all that was of the first Adam (all of us).

Truth #4 = Understanding Baptism: 5 Facts
1) By water baptism, it is baptism “into His death,” ending one creation. But it is also baptism “into Christ,” being raised into a new creation (Romans 6:3). I go down into the water and my old world goes down with me. I come up in Christ, but my old world is drowned.

2) Unless God has opened my eyes to see that I have died in Christ and been buried with Him, I should not be baptized. I step down into the water to testify that in God’s sight I have already died.

3) God has already crucified me, but I must confirm God’s sentence, passed upon me in the Cross of His Son. My baptism affirms that I agree with God to be cut off from the old world and belong now to the new.

4) Baptism means in the Cross I was “baptized” into the historic death of Christ, so that His death became mine. My death and His death became so closely identified that it is impossible to divide between them.

5) My public testimony in baptism is my admission that the death of Christ 2,000 years ago was a mighty all-inclusive death that carried away in it everything in me that is not of God.

Truth #5 = Understanding Resurrection: 2 Facts
1) With the Resurrection something new is introduced. I was “baptized into His death,” but I do not enter into His resurrection quite the same way. His Resurrection enters into me, imparting to me a new life.

2) In the death of the Lord the emphasis is solely upon “I in Christ.” With the Resurrection, while the same thing is true, there is now a new emphasis: “Christ in me.”

As this week’s verse says, Christians are “new creations.” This, not cultural Marxism, will redeem America.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #604