2 Cor.5:17-19,21 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.…For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This passage is foundational for the change we have experienced in Christ. Christ is our substitute, He took on our sin (Paul said He became sin) that we could take on His righteousness. There was an exchange of what we were to what He is. Now here is the beauty of this, we are not just seen by God as holy He has gone beyond that. He has actually made us new creatures or creations in Christ. He has infused into us at the new birth a new nature, His nature, so that we could be transformed from glory to glory into His likeness. He says it clearly, all I was has passed away and He has made us new. Here is what Jonathan Edwards says about this.
“By this [doctrine of new creation] we learn that all the graces of Christianity are infused in this, inasmuch as all are concatenated [“linked”]; when one is infused, all are infused; there is not one grace wanting. A convert at the same moment that he is become such is possessed of all holy principles, all gracious dispositions. There is a seed of every kind of holy behavior towards God, and towards men. There are as many graces in a true Christian as there are in Jesus Christ himself.”
If I think back at my life before Christ (for me it was a long time ago) it seems like I am thinking about someone else, someone from a different time and place. Come to think of it, I am thinking of someone else. That other person died and was buried a long time ago. A new man has been raised up from the dead. What shall I do now? I suppose I should walk in this newness of life and don’t give an opportunity for that old life to return.
