“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17.
The first thing I noticed as I read the verse is that it does not say “if anyone is in Christ, he feels (like) a new creation”. In fact, everyday experience seems to suggest otherwise for a significant number of Christians. In this seeming contradiction is the beauty of the revelation contained in the verse.
Let me quickly say that the verse is about God’s perspective or the way God sees anyone who is in Christ. You must understand that God can only deal with you according to how he sees you. Are you in Christ? Then you are a new creation as far as God is concerned. Therefore, stop “reminding” him your old self and start thinking of yourself as new creation, or as he sees you!
Apparently, one develops his/her identity by interacting with people around especially significant ones in his/her life -it means that what you say to your children about them determine to a great extent their behaviour and identity. See, the feedback a baby gets from the mother is critical to the baby’s sense of identity….
Accordingly, it is significant that the feedback anyone who is in Christ gets from the Heavenly Father is summarised in the expression “new creation”. If you are in Christ, God says you are a new creation! Let what God is saying to and about you help you develop your new identity as new creation. As God’s feedback to you, it is meant to help you see yourself as such and, consequently, begin to feel and behave like it eventually. Seeing the beauty of the new creation that you are in Christ is the first step to wanting to let the old creation go.
The second thing I noticed in the verse is that the only way I can have a new identity, that is, from old creation to new creation is to be in Christ. And the good news is that it cost nothing so that anyone could do it by simply believing in Jesus Christ.
May God grant us the grace to see the beauty of becoming new creation, in Jesus Christ’s name!
