New Birth = New Creation
Being “born of the Spirit” means that you are a brand-new creation, but don’t apply for sainthood yet. There is a new you, but the old you is still around, looking for ways of overthrowing what the Lord has done—and heading out on his/her own all over again. The old you has to stay knocked down, for the new you to enjoy the sweet air of freedom. Nevertheless, the glorious, unchangeable truth is that now that faith in Christ has come to us, we are New Creations. This is the miracle of new birth which raises us from our sin and separation from God into eternal life in union with our God.[1]
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 WEB
All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
What Does It Mean to Be A New Creation?
We still see a lot of the old nature and the former ways of living, thinking and feeling, but new things have been added that radically change all things. However, before we look at the things that have become new, let’s review what has not changed or passed away.
Paul is not telling us that we no longer have a sin nature to contend with or sins to resist. Above all the apostles, he lays out the ongoing struggle between the New Creation (spirit) and the old nature (flesh) in texts too numerous to fully mention.[2] So what does pass away?
1) The Person Who Did Not Know Jesus No Longer Exists
That person (your former self) has indeed passed away now that the revelation of Jesus Christ has come. If a blind person regains sight and sees the sun, even if the blindness returns, they will never be the same.
2) Before Conversion, We Were One with Our Sins
With our repentance and faith in Christ, the Father separated us from our sins by forgiving them and justifying us.[3] There is still an ongoing battle with sin, but continuing in sin is a spoiled thing for New Creations for two main reasons: one, the conviction of the Spirit; two, the sense of separation from Christ. Both overshadow the former pleasures of unrighteousness, enabling us to learn to hate sin. Many of our old ways, therefore, change with conversion, but not all. We are engaged in an all new process of ongoing conversion, which includes cleansing and growth in Christ.[4]
3) Now, We Are No Longer “on the Outside”
We were formerly not a people, but now we are a part of God’s family. We were strangers to the covenant, but now have been brought near, being made one with His Body on earth.[5]
Look Ahead, Not Behind
This way of seeing the new birth (by what passed away) is like looking in the rear view mirror while driving. The really stunning, forward-looking view is how we now appear as New Creations!
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- We have been spiritually reborn through the revelation of Jesus Christ (See Beholding the True Image).
- We can no longer measure anything without reference to Christ.[6]
- We have been given a new heart and new spirit—a new nature![7]
- We live under a new covenant of immense mercy.[8]
- We are given the Holy Spirit, the righteousness of Christ and the Name of Jesus.
- We are not our past, not our sin, not our “bad side”—we are New Creations!
We are also a mystery even to ourselves. God is bestowing a new identity upon us only He knows. Who we now are is only revealed whenever we trust and obey Jesus—we are “hidden” in Him. He is the key! As we die to Self (the false god), we live through trusting and obeying Jesus.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
Accepted and Reconciled!
Our acceptance by God as New Creations is absolute, complete and unwavering. Try to fathom the massive liberation that God has accomplished by the Blood of atonement, our new covering.
It was God…in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them]. 2 Corinthians 5:19 AMP
This incredible Reconciliation covers all that we have been in Adam and will be in Christ. Faith is what God gives us so that we can receive this grace and be translated from the kingdom of darkness (in Adam) to the Kingdom of His Son (in Christ), but faith did not in any way change God's Heart towards us, which is love, or His reconciliation to our sins, which Jesus accomplished fully at the cross.
In conversion the former self (that had no life in Christ) passed away and the true self (that lives through trusting Christ) has been reborn/regenerated. The New Creation is a redeeming of the old, not an elimination of all that was former. We have a fresh start and a new center from which to live at any moment.
We Are New, But the Old Is in Us
The New Creation “comes to life” in us whenever we trust in the One who is our new life. As we “walk in the light” trusting God through Jesus Christ, our old nature is laid to rest like a shadow lying down behind us.[9] However, the one Paul calls “the old man” wants back in. Our old nature “comes back to life” in us whenever we cease to rely upon our God. Are we going to live by a resuscitation of the old self, or by a resurrection of the new life? The choice is ever before us.
I have been crucified with Christ… it is no longer I who live, but Christ… lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 AMP
Unquestionably, you are a new creation! However, you are going to need some deep convincing and some thorough cleansing in order to cease relying on the pre-programmed ways of your old nature. Much progress will be made as you learn to understand and believe the reality of your New Identity and the personality that comes along with it.
Keep Growing!
New Creation = New Identity Unquestionably, you are a new creation! However, you are going to need some deep convincing and some thorough cleansing in order to cease relying on the pre-programmed ways of your old nature. Much progress will be made as you learn to understand and believe the reality of your New Identity and the personality that comes along with it.
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Endnotes
[1] Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3
[2] See Romans 7:17-20; Romans 8:1-8; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Colossians 7:1; Galatians 5:13-17; Galatians 5:24-26.
[3] And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. Romans 3:24-25
[4] But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:13
[5] Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself); and you belong to God's [own] household. Ephesians 2:19 AMP
[6] 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. 2 Corinthians 5:16
[7] And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
[8] "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jeremiah 31:31-34
[9] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Romans 6:6