Made New

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; the new has come. II Corinthians 5:17

Introduction

One memorable event happened Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours before the Wednesday prayer meeting. The pastor had a counseling session scheduled at his church office. It was about that time when I started to turn off the lights, and I was almost ready to lock the front door and leave the building. Walking down the stairs from my second-floor office, I saw a young lady waiting in the church lobby. She was trying to find the pastor’s office. Unfortunately, he forgot about the appointment.

I saw the look of sadness on her face. I said I was also a minister and invited her into my office. When she started to speak, she broke down crying. Tears flowed down her face, seemingly without end. She revealed to me that she and her husband had marital problems. He wanted a divorce, but she did not. Her husband refused to go with her to a marriage counsellor. She did not know what to do. I listened intently to her for several minutes. She felt abandoned and not loved. I said I knew someone who would always love her, and He would never turn His back on her. If she confessed to Jesus that she was a sinner and asked Him to forgive her sins and invite Him to come into her life as her Savior and Lord, He could give her strength to cope with any problem.

I recited The Four Spiritual Laws to her. I told her Jesus wouldn’t only forgive her sins, but He could give her joy and peace that lasts for eternity. Before she left my office that evening, she gave her life to Jesus. Her face turned from a look of sadness to a face filled with joy. Jesus Christ made her a new creation!

In 2 Corinthians 5:17

There Are Four Fundamental Statements

1. If Anyone Is In Christ. What does it mean to be “in Christ?” These two words summarize an intellectually profound statement about the significance of being born-again. It means our lives have changed because we have put our trust and confidence in Him. We desire to live in harmony with His will. To be “in Christ” was the Apostle Paul’s definition of a Christian.

“In Christ” describes our mystical experience because Christ lives in us through His Holy Spirit. We are not merely improving, reformed, or altered in any way, which implies no more than an external change.

In 2 Corinthians 4:6, the Apostle Paul says For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In Genesis 1:3, Paul uses the word “light” to picture a spiritual change as the dawning of the new creation amid this sinful world. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is to encounter the life-transforming glory of God. Colossians 1:13 says He has delivered us from the rule or power of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son. “The rule or power of darkness” to “moral and spiritual darkness.” Warren W. Wiersbe says, “He has delivered us,” which means “He has rescued us from danger.” We could not deliver ourselves from the guilt and penalty of sin, but Jesus could and did deliver us. We were in danger of spending eternity apart from God. The sword of God’s judgment was hanging over our heads. Jesus Christ did not release us from bondage, only to have us wander aimlessly. He moved us into His Kingdom of Light and made us victors over Satan’s Kingdom of Darkness. Earthly rulers transported the defeated people, but Jesus Christ transported the winners.

The Old Testament tells us that, in Egypt, God rescued his people from slavery. Now, says Paul, Jesus has spiritually liberated his people from darkness. The same God who created physical life in the universe is the same God who creates supernatural light in the soul and guides His believers from the kingdom of darkness to His Kingdom of light.

Peter 1:3–4 tells us His divine power has granted to us all things that are

associated with life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His glory and excellence, by which He has given us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. God has blessed the born-again believer in all things about life.

2. He Is A New Creation. To see Christ in the most appropriate light comes from this inner transformation brought about by being in Christ. In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. No longer I live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved and gave himself for me. We live because Christ lives in us! The word crucified in Galatians 2:20 is an implied comparison of a spiritual identification with Christ in His death. It is an intimate friendship we have with Him.

W. E. Vine says a new creation describes something that is created at a new level of excellence. It refers to being born-again. Paul says in Ephesians 2:1–3, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience?—?among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of humankind.

“Death” is used in Scripture for the separation of the soul, the spiritual part of man from the body, the material part of man, the latter ceasing to function and turning to dust. James 2:14–15 says Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He likewise partook of the same things, that through death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery.

3. The Old Has Passed Away. 2 Corinthians 5:16 says. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. The “flesh” compares the difference between “the outward and seeming” and the spirit, “the inward and real.” In John 6:63, Jesus says The Spirit gives life; The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. The “flesh” is our human nature. It includes emotions, will, and intellect. The “flesh” cannot produce genuine spiritual life, for the Spirit can only do this.

The “old” is the desire for a self-centred life, a characteristic of non-Christians. A Christian is born- again. That does not mean he is no longer a sinner, but he is spiritually alive in Christ. The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 6:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Evil and sin are still present, but the born-again believer sees them differently.

4. The New Has Come. Do you know what the young woman did after she left my church office? She was so excited about her newfound faith in the Lord that she felt compelled to go out into the community and share the Good News with her relatives and friends.

Paul tells us in Romans 6:4 that we were buried with him by baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk into the newness of life. We can rejoice because the beginning of the new age has come. Galatians 1:4 tells us Christ can deliver us from the present evil age. Our thoughts are on Christ and the interests of others. Such an inner change means that all things become new. There is a transformation of values.

Based on the death of the historical Jesus, the death penalty for sin has been paid for all those who trust in Him (i.e., Romans 3:21–26), and God counts their old life has ended, freeing them from any future penal claims. Because of the death of the historical Jesus, the power of sin no longer has power over us.

If you are not a professing Christian, if you confess that you are a sinner, have place your trust and confidence in Christ Jesus, and invite Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, to be your Savior and Lord. He will make you a new person and a new creation.

The motive of the Christian life is to be “in Christ.” He died for everybody. The old self of the Christian died in that death, and he arose as a new man, as new as if he had been freshly created by the hands of God. He has acquired a new set of standards. Saul (Paul) sought to wipe out from the memory of man Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ is the most wonderful person in the world. Jesus Christ won for him the friendship of God, which he had all his life longed for and never found until he found it in Him.

If you put your confidence and trust in Jesus Christ, he will make you a new creature. No longer will you be subject to lifelong slavery.

Contributor b C Paul Wooderson