“So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new spiritual creation; the “old
antiquated ways” of God, which do not belong to the new life in Christ Jesus,
have passed completely away; behold, all the ways of God have become utterly
new and qualitatively better.” (2 Cor. 5:17, John’s translation)
The death and resurrection of
Christ began a new epoch in the history of man. The old things, the ancient
customs of Jewish ritual observance, the Old Mosaic Covenant of the Law, the
old forward looking ways of conceiving of the Messiah who was to come, and even
Jesus as a man have all passed away in significance to make way for a new
interpretation of life, the gospel, offered by Christ our Lord and Savior. “All
things of God” became new (to man) when the veil of the temple, which was
Christ’s body (Heb. 10:20), was rent in two ushering in the qualitatively
better New Covenant of Grace -- the new will of God to man – defined by the new
relational paradigm of being “In Christ”… grafted into Him, flesh of His Flesh
and bone of His Bone. (Eph. 5:30)
To be “In Christ” is a very
different thing than claiming to be “Of Christ”, of the Christian Party. The
Apostle Paul made this distinction in the prior verse (vs. 16) when he stated he
no longer knew Christ according to the flesh: Paul no longer laid stress on the
local and hereditary “fleshly” aspects of the national Messiah of the Jewish
people, for this Messiah was… and is Himself the Incarnate Word of God. It is
of great interest and value to learn all we can about the birth, life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth – the historical aspect of the flesh life
– but it is the present Life of Christ, and our union in Him – the
spiritual/mystical aspect – that is of religious importance… life changing
importance. And anyone
who is “In Christ” is a new creation, a spiritual creation qualitatively
different than what Judaism offered. (see Jn. 3:3, Rom. 6:4, 8:29, Eph. 2:10,
4:22-23, Col. 3:10, etc.) “As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death … that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
(Rom. 6:1-23) Our slavery to sin was
broken the moment we became new spiritual creations in God’s New Covenant of
Grace. So the new creation refers to the “new process of salvation”,
repentance, acceptance of God’s grace, and sanctification of and by the Holy
Spirit. (2 Thess. 2:13) And sanctification is our separation unto God where He
begins the work of making us into holy vessels… making us Christlike.
As an “application”, this
scripture can be used to illustrate what God’s goal is in the believer’s life,
old things are passing away --
our carnal fleshly nature”Self” is being crucified daily, and all things are becoming new -- our new divine
nature is being released as we are “conformed to the image (nature) of His Son
(Jesus)” by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 8:29-30) Christ’s death and resurrection, and
our identification with Him by faith, make our existence as a new spiritual
creation possible, and although it is only partially experienced, the
completion of our re-creation into spiritual beings having the character,
virtues, values, and attitude of Jesus is assured. (2 Cor. 4:15 - 5:5)
Transformation into a new spiritual
creation is the process of regeneration. (Titus 3:5) Salvation does not
instantaneously conform us into the nature of Jesus: We do not instantaneously
shed our old Self-Controlled nature (i.e., old man) and exhibit our new Holy Spirit-Controlled
nature (i.e., new man). “For it is God who works in you (i.e., It’s a process) both
to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
(Phil. 2:13) And His “good pleasure” is our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3), the
fruit of the Spirit – Christ’s very own nature -- released within. Becoming
Christlike that “He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom.
8:29) is a lifelong process. Understanding this passage is critical to
understanding God’s plan for man.
In Summary:
“Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
* In Christ: “Now
you are the body of Christ, and members individually ... For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body … and have all been made to drink
into one Spirit … I am the vine, you
are the branches.” Our Blessed Hope of eternal life with our Father is
predicated on this simple phrase. It is the “One Baptism” of Eph. 4:5 that
places believers into the Body of Christ, Not Water Baptism or Spirit Baptism,
but Christ Baptism. (1 Cor. 12:13, 27; Jn. 15:5)
* New Creation: We become new
spiritual creations when our enslavement to sin is broken through Christ Baptism
and we are freed to choose righteousness or sin – submission to the Lordship of
Christ or submission to the lord of this world and his resident cohort “Self.”
We are and, in this life, will always be sinful creatures. The allure of life
in this world – lust of the eyes and flesh, and the pride of life – is a
powerful drug, and Self, our carnal fleshly nature, is an addict. Self will
only relent through death making journeys to the Cross frequent and our
transformation into Christlikeness a slow life long process. Our willingness to
change paces our progress as the Holy Spirit “yearns jealously” to have all our
heart to manifest the fullness of Christ’s nature within. Self-control, a fruit
of the Spirit, is a most needed virtue as the Holy Spirit reveals that which is
displeasing to God – peeling our heart like an onion. (James 4:5; 1 Jn. 2:16;
Gal. 5:22-23)
* Old Things Have Passed Away:
The Old Covenant of the Old Testament, with its festivals, feasts, rituals,
ceremonies, and traditions – all undergirded by The Mosaic Law -- has passed
away having brought us to the Cross of Christ. We should consider ourselves
dead to The Law and The Law dead to us. Holding onto any part of The Law is a
most serious affront to Grace, making one a debtor to keep the whole Law. (Gal.
2:19-21, 5:3; Rom. 7:4, 6)
* All Things Have Become New:
The New Covenant of the New Testament with its superabounding grace and
relentless love is here, now, to enable us to embrace God’s ultimate plan for
mankind, our transformation into Christlikeness. This “New” is translated from
the Greek kainos (i.e., kainos/anakainoo, new/renew), which means “new”,
qualitatively new and different from the past, new in nature with the sense of
better, unfamiliar, unexpected and wonderful:
Literally to make new again... and qualitatively better. Kainos differs significantly from “neos”,
another Greek word also translated new which means new in time, numerically
another one newly acquired, but no different than the others. A look at the way
kainos is used in scripture demonstrates its qualitative contrast to neos:
New heavens, New earth, New
Jerusalem, New wine, New name (God names us), New song, New Covenant, New
commandment (of loving one another), One New man (Jews and Gentiles), New man
(us!), New tongues, New lump (us - unleavened), And New creation. “Behold, I
make all things New.”
The “Things” in 2 Cor. 5:17 that
have become “New” refers not only to the New Covenant, but the new spiritual
creation of every person who is “In Christ” and living free from enslavement to
sin. We need to understand when God renews something it is majorly new and
majorly better - it is only “re” newed because He is changing something that
existed before, making it so much better that He calls it “New.” When God
renewed His covenant with us He went from the Mosaic Law of Leviticus straight
to the Grace of John 3:16 to create a “New” Covenant with the blood of the Son
of His love. And, when God made us a new spiritual creation He broke our
enslavement to sin giving us a choice… the free will to choose righteousness
over sin. It is this freedom from the chains of sin that allows us to pursue
God… to be transformed… to become Christlike.
The first and unique renewing of
the Holy Spirit saved us (Titus 3:5), and we are to put on the new man who is
renewed in knowledge (Col. 3:10) as our inward man is renewed daily (2 Cor.
4:16) so we can walk in the newness of life (Rom. 6:4), and serve in the
newness of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6), having a bold new living access into the
holiest of holies (Heb. 10:19,20) - Through a life to a Life!
The Cross, the signature of Jesus, is our eternal invitation to come and
dine at our Father’s table, now and forever. Living God’s plan is our choice to
treasure and pursue with all our heart… or squander in pursuit of lovers less
wild… the glitter of life in this world.
GOD’S PLAN IS TO MAKE US CHRISTLIKE
IN THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED
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