If anyone is in Christ the new creation has come – 2 Corinthians 5:17
A person who is in Christ is a completely different person. His old identity of being a fallen sinner has been replaced by one of being credited with Christ’s righteous life and having his sin forgiven through Christ’s death on the cross.
The idea of being a new creation is rooted in the Bible’s teaching on the Holy Spirit. This means that God is able to change the way we think and behave.
This is an important theme to understand because it explains how we can live out our purpose in this world. It also helps us understand how we can grow spiritually and grow in our relationship with God.
How is being a new creation made possible?
First, our old self is destroyed. That is what the Holy Spirit does in us after we have trusted in Christ as our Savior and have become a member of His body.
Secondly, our new self is sanctified. That is what the Holy Spirit does to us in order to make us more like Jesus and less like ourselves.
When we are sanctified, we allow the old, ungodly ways of thinking and behaving to die out in our lives. We hate those things more and more as we grow in our faith and maturity in God. Eventually we will have a hard time resisting those ways, but as we mature in our Christian life, it will get easier.
