Day 1: I am a new creation, the old has gone, the new is here.
- 2 Cor. 5:17-21
- 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come! 18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
You may be asking yourself, what do I do now?
That’s a great question. And that’s why I’m writing this series of posts. You put your faith in Jesus on Sunday. You went from death to life. But what exactly does that mean? I want to help you with that.
In the passage of scripture above, we learn about what took place that moment you decided to receive God’s gift of life. You went from being dead to being alive.
(Let me explain some lingo I’m using. Passage refers to a selection of verses from the Bible. That tag at the beginning of that passage “2 Cor. 5:17-21” is the reference. I like to use a site called www.biblegateway.com. Bookmark that site. If you’re reading this on your phone, there is a great app we use called YouVersion Bible. You can download it for free on all devices. You can copy 2 Cor. 5:17-21 into either of those and it will pull it up for you to read.)
Ephesians 2:1-8 also helps us gain some understanding:
- “And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…
- 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!— 6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
We, before Christ gave us this new life, were dead in our transgressions and sins. What is a transgression? That’s another good question. Here is a great video that will help you understand what sin means: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNOZ7ocLD74. Transgression (not covered in this video) means to fall beside, or to deviate from truth.
So, as that passage in Ephesians tells us, even though we were dead in our sins because we were living according to the world’s ways, God sent Jesus. God, because He is rich in Mercy (that’s just who He is, he can’t be unmerciful) made us alive together with Christ. When Christ was raised from the dead, those of us who put our faith in him were also raised from the dead. This is God’s gift of grace to all who believe.
Now, we have a new life. We are literally walking in “newness of life.” It’s a miraculous life too. Because of Christ, God sees us a new creation. The old is gone, the new is here. Because of Christ, God now sees us through His righteous son. The righteous God had to put on the sinfulness of man so that sinful man could put on the righteousness of God. That means that right now, as God looks at you, he see you as a new creation, with a right standing before Him. He does not see our sin, that was forgiven because of Christ. What He sees is you, brand new.
You are a new creation. The old (death) is gone, the new (life) is here.