New Creation Christians: Transformed in Christ

2Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold; all things have become new.”

This Scripture passage states plainly “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation….” The Holy Spirit clearly does not mean in the Scripture passage that one in Christ ought to be a new creation or is trying to be a new creation. He means, as the Scripture passage states, one who is in Christ is in fact a new creation.

In other words, the characteristics of a new creation make up and are manifested in anyone who is in Christ. Anyone who is in Christ lives the life of a new creation. The idea of a new creation means change has taken place from a former state. Thus, being in Christ produces a transformation which results in a new creation or a new being changed from the former sinful state which existed prior to being in Christ.

The word creation used in the passage denotes the result of a creative act. It is the same word used in the Bible to denote what God has created, produced, designed, or brought into existence (Mark 10:6; Mark 13:19; Romans 1:25; Revelation 3:14). And so, a sinner who comes to Christ is effectively assimilated into Christ and God makes of that sinner a completely new person. This implies there is an operation of the creative power of God in the conversion of a sinner in Christ to transform the person into a new creation.

The new creation in Christ is therefore not the product of human effort or genetic inheritance. It is the result of the creative work of God in Christ. John describes God’s sovereign work in producing this new creation in Christ as being born again solely of God. We read in John 1:12-13: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” What all of this says to us is that the conversion of a sinner who comes to Christ is the result of the powerful work of God alone through Christ without any input from man.

It is important that we understand the divine process of conversion and not mistake conformity to certain religious rituals and customs, joining churches, self-fostered change in behaviour, and social forms of rehabilitation for Christian conversion. Paul emphasizes the futility of these things in the transformation of a sinner in Christ in Galatians 6:15: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”

New creation Christians are offspring of God, born anew of God. God by His grace through salvation has created us new creatures in Christ. If we are Christians, by faith in God we must define ourselves according to what the word of God says we are, and not according to our feelings or the opinions of men. We were once sinners, dead in sin and iniquity, but by the grace of God we now are converted and transformed by divine creative power in Christ.

We are not aspiring to be but are new creatures in Christ and we live and walk as new creatures in Christ. Therefore, let us stand on our faith in Christ and live fully the newness of life which we have in Christ in whom God has made us to be new creations.