Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. — 2 Corinthians 5:17
When I first became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—a born again Christian—one of the best things that happened to me at the time was a small group that my wife and I joined in the church that met to memorize Scripture.
We would meet each week and learn two Bible texts under a particular theme or subject. Now we couldn’t recite the verses perfectly the first night, but our assignment during the week was to come prepared at the next meeting to repeat the two verses in front of everyone else. Pressure to learn God’s Word? Absolutely. Did it turn out to be a blessing from God when we wrote His word on our hearts? Absolutely. In fact, I still remember most of the verses I learned in that group over 40 years ago. One of those is the one above from the apostle Paul, written to the church at Corinth where believers are referred to as, “a new creation” in Christ.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a Bible student and teacher is when you study a verse and you find something very interesting that helps illuminate the meaning. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, you’ll notice that Paul uses the word, “new” twice in this text. He says, we are a “new creation” and the “new has come.”
Now most of the time when we refer to something as being new, we think of some kind of event or material thing, like a new car, or new furniture or a new job or it could be a new personal relationship like a new friend. It’s something that has recently come into existence. The Bible in its original language has a word for that kind of understanding—neos. But that kind of newness is only temporary. It’s new now, but in a few weeks or months or years it won’t be new any longer. That’s neos. In fact, this kind of newness will eventually become old.
But the word the apostle Paul uses in this verse for “new” is another word completely. It’s kainos, which refers to something that is new in quality or character, something that is novel because it is not impaired by time. It is a newness that stays permanent and continues to change into something even better as time goes by. Spiritually, that’s what we become in Christ.
Is this the story of your life and relationship with Jesus? Have you become that kind of new person because “the old things have passed away” in your life? Are you becoming a new creation each day, one that is brand new in essence and nature that will last forever because of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life? What an awesome pledge made to us by God.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you can change that today and become that new creation that Paul talks about. Will you trust Him to change you forever as you give your heart to Him—forever? The Bible says, that if we, “confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved” (Romans 10:9-10). That means we will be changed. We will become new—a new creation in Christ. — Pastor Don
