New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! I am so thankful that I am a new creation. But what has changed? What is a new creation supposed to look like?

My nature is different. I am no longer dead, but have been made alive with Christ. I once was dead in my sin (Ephesians 2: 1-3). I was without hope, without love, and without life. I was living out the passions of my flesh- doing what I wanted, all the while I was on the path of death and a child of wrath. But God changed all of that through Christ (Ephesians 2:4-10). He made me alive with Christ by His grace alone. There was nothing that I did to change myself. I did not want to change. Can something that is dead want to be made alive? No.

That is what the verses in 2 Corinthians say- all this was from God, through Christ. He was reconciling me to God. To reconcile means: to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent, to restore. God restored me. He is holy and perfect, therefore He cannot look upon sin. All I was was sin! But when I believed, Christ covered me with His blood, I received the Holy Spirit, and now God can look at me through Christ- for He is perfect. He no longer counts my sin or trespasses against me anymore. I am new, free, and alive! I have been given a new nature. There will be battles with the old flesh and the new Spirit that lives with in me. Galatians 5:16-24 says, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

Therefore, or because of all of this (because I have the Spirit and my life no longer wants to live in the flesh), I am an ambassador for Christ. I am an authorized messenger for God. I am to tell of who God is and what He has done, that others might believe and be reconciled to God too. Remembering that all of this is possible, because of Christ who knew no sin, but became sin on my behalf, so that in Him I might become the righteousness of God.

Praise be to God!