New Life In Christ!

Happy 2024 my friends. Enjoying the year we’ve had so far? January is like a new beginning. A chance to start over. Ever wish you could start things again; like wipe out the past & start over? Something like cleaning off the chalkboard in the classroom so the teacher could write something new on it. We’ve all made mistakes & done or said things we wish we hadn’t. I know I have. Sometimes we don’t think about it until after it’s been done. We just want a Take 2 for that scene.

God does make it possible to restart things & get them right. When we accept salvation through Christ we become entirely new creations! The old has passed away & all is new. Only He can make this possible.

In the book of 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

Did you hear that? If we are “in Christ” we are a new creation. The old is gone & we are new beings. New beings with the leadership of the Spirit to help us in life. This change doesn’t have to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. When we sin & stray off of the path of God, we need to be made new again. And we can! We just have to go to the Lord to confess what we’ve done, repent, & ask the Spirit to guide us. We are made a new creation all over again! And there is no age limit to when you can do this. Anyone here can start over anytime we need to.

Now let's take a closer look into this verse that Paul wrote:

Highlight - Highlight the verse that speaks to you

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)

Explain - Explain what this passage means

This verse says “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” Until we come to Jesus, we are walking the sinful path of the world & not the path of God.

To be the new creation God desires us to be we must be “in Christ”. The phrase “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus” refers to the state of believers. Are you a believer? Then you are in Christ! If you have asked God to forgive your sins & have professed your faith & decision to follow Jesus with your life; you are saved. Paul uses this phrase frequently to speak of the believer's spiritual relationship with Jesus. Believing in Jesus is the reason we stand before God justified despite our sins. To help understand justified it’s like when we say “Just If I’d”. Just if I’d done what I was supposed to do. When we profess faith in Christ, we can say that.

As Christians, we have neither earned nor deserve eternal life with God and the forgiveness of our sins, though we have both. That's the grace of God. They were given to us because of Christ and what He did for us.

One place we can look to see what it means to be in Christ is Galatians 3:26-28. That scripture says, “26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is teaching that when we are in Christ we are united with other brothers & sisters who are saved. Paul’s reminding the Galatians, who were Gentiles, of the new identity they got after they put their faith in Jesus. They'd left their old sinful lives to fully embrace new life in Christ. In Christ there is divine unity. Galatians 3:28 says “you are all one in Christ Jesus” When we answer the calling of God, He adopts us into His family. In Christ, our life is hidden in His. Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus!

When we are “in Christ” we become the righteousness of God. To be "in Christ" means we have accepted His sacrifice as payment for our sins. When God looks at us, He sees that we are draped in the righteousness of His Son instead of the wickedness of the flesh. When we accept His sacrifice on our behalf, He switches accounts with us. He exchanges our list of sins with Jesus' perfect account that is pleasing to God.

The next part of this verse says when we are “in Christ” we are an entirely new creation. Only God can make something out of nothing. He spoke the words & the universe was made. If you & I go home & try to speak a juicy T-bone steak into existence we might starve to death. Only God can speak things into existence. When we go to Christ we are made into a new creation. When we are in Christ, we desire to do what is pleasing in the eyes of God.