Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/21

Rh future world, the science of eternal life, are matters which the natural mind can never learn from the natural world or by natural education, and are therefore subjects for Divine revelation.

Asserting then that its teaching is purely spiritual, what, in the first place, is the general theme of the parable? It is, outwardly, an account of the creation; it must, therefore, be inwardly an account of creation in some spiritual sense.

What then is spiritual creation? Its nature is revealed by the words of David when he said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." There is a creation of the natural man, and there is a creation of the spiritual man. The one causes us to live naturally, the other causes us to live spiritually. The apostle Paul alluded to the spiritual creation of the inward man when he said, "Put ye on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness;" and also in the words, "For we are his (God's) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Such men, he called new creatures, that is, new created beings. In this phrase he said to the Corinthians, "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature"—a newly created being. He also called such "renewed" in the spirit of their minds. In thus speaking, he did but interpret spiritually and correctly such expressions of the Old Testament