In 5:17 Paul speaks of the new creation: “So that if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.” To be in Christ is to be one with Him in life and in nature. This is of God through our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:26-28).
The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, the believers born again of God, does have the divine life and the divine nature (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, the believers are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh, but according to the new nature of the divine life.
When I was first saved, it was easy for me to declare that I was a new creation—all things had become new. But after being a Christian for many years, it seems that more and more things are still old. In order to become new, we need the breaking of the outward man and a renewing of the inward man.
Let me ask you a question: Are you the old man or the new man? It may have been that when you were first saved, you could say, “Praise the Lord! With me everything is new.” But after being a Christian for many years, it may seem that you feel that you are old. For this reason, it is difficult for us to say whether we are the old man or the new man. Actually we are in the process of becoming a new creation by being broken and being renewed.
Second Corinthians 10:1 says, “But I myself, Paul, entreat you through the meekness and forbearance of Christ.” This indicates that Paul, being firmly attached to Christ (1:21) and one with Him, lived by Him and behaved in His virtues. Because Christ had been infused into Paul’s being, Christ became his meekness and forbearance. Paul, therefore, was a person fully transfused and permeated with Christ. So Paul’s meekness was Christ, and his forbearance was Christ.
In 11:10 Paul says, “The truth of Christ is in me.” In this verse “truth” means truthfulness, as in Romans 9:1. Like meekness and forbearance in 2 Corinthians 10:1, this truthfulness is an attribute of Christ. Because Paul lived by Christ, whatever Christ was became Paul’s virtue in his behavior. Paul’s truthfulness, his honesty, was the Christ who had been dispensed into him.
Because Paul had been transfused and permeated with Christ, in his ministry he could write living letters of Christ. He could dispense Christ through his ministry into others, for he had been infused with Christ to the uttermost.
Transfusion leads to constitution, and constitution produces transformation. This issues in the maturity of life and the constitution of ministry. This is accomplished by the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.