A New Creation in Christ
From The HeartPublish date: 01/05/2014
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 NKJV
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP
A new creation in Christ:
[All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24 AMP
If you are “in Christ” it means that you belong to Him: you received Him as Savior and Lord and He came to live on the inside of you and He made you a new creation.
For neither is circumcision [now] of any importance, nor uncircumcision, but [only] a new creation [the result of a new birth and a new nature in Christ Jesus, the Messiah]. Galatians 6:15 AMP
Your spirit is born again:
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:3-8 NKJV
Jesus is not referring to physical birth, but to spiritual birth. You cannot be born again physically, but you can, and you must, be born again spiritually. When Adam sinned he died spiritually. Sin was passed down in the flesh to succeeding generations. Without a divine intervention there is no help for man. Under the old covenant man’s sins were merely covered by the blood of bulls and goats, but under the new covenant, and by the blood of Jesus, you are born again and your sins are removed.
Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned. Romans 5:12 AMP
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1 NKJV
Regeneration:
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Titus 3:4-6 NKJV
Jesus did not come to give us a new religion, but he came to give us a new life. This new life comes not by doing, but by believing. Through the love of God mercy is poured out on us and we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word for regeneration (paliggenesia) literally means a “new birth”. The classical writers used this word in reference to the changes produced by the return of spring – life springing up from death. It can also mean the “restitution of all things”. 1 John 3:14 says that the love of God in us is evidence that we have passed over out of death into life.
It is God who gives life to the dead:
(As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Romans 4:17 NKJV
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 NKJV
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 NKJV
Born again through the incorruptible seed – the word of God:
Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. 1 Peter 1:23 NKJV
A new heart:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19 NKJV
2 Corinthians 5:17 is the fulfillment of these scriptures. Father God promised to give us a brand new heart and he did it through his Son. Not only did He give us a brand new heart, but He gave us a brand new life. Death has been swallowed up in victory! (Isaiah 25:8)
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. Romans 6:8-9 AMP