It seems that everyone likes something new; even if it’s only new to you. It may be a used car, but if it’s new to you, then it’s still exciting. Or it even may be an antique but if it is new to the owner it creates a sensation that only the new owner can understand. But, as with all things created, this new feeling wears away quickly.
There is one thing that should never get old and we find it in 2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (ESV). This is very good news for the person who has received Christ as Savior. It means that the old self of sin is no longer in control, and you are no longer condemned because of sin, but have new life because of Christ.
Just a few verses later Paul the apostle makes this clear also. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV). This is what Jesus did for humankind; He took my place by taking sin upon Himself.
Jesus had never sinned and all I could do was sin, yet Christ gave me His righteousness so that I would be made acceptable to God! This is mind-blowing when you ponder it in your heart and mind.
Though this whole chapter Paul is adamant about making the church at Corinth understand what Jesus had accomplished on their behalf. Our earthly body is not our final body, but, for those who have believed in Christ Jesus for salvation, an eternal body awaits us, made by God. This is the gift of God for eternity, that we can be made completely whole, a thing that could never happen here on earth.
With this being true we try to “persuade” others of this truth so that our thoughts would be upon Christ much more often. It is as part of the saying goes that many have heard – “we are to be so heavenly-minded.” We must be heavenly-minded as we live in a world that is filled with sin and groaning for the return of its Maker.
We are a new creation because of what Christ came to do – to reconcile us to the Father. The way He did that was not only to become sin for us but also pay for that sin by giving His life upon a cruel cross. When Christ died upon the cross He absorbed the entire wrath of God upon our sin on our behalf. The book of Hebrews tells us this: “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2b, ESV).
It is this sacrifice that gives us new life if we receive it by faith. Salvation from the wrath of God, the wages of sin is death, and Christ conquered death when He died at Calvary upon that cruel instrument of death, the cross, and rose again to eternal life. This is the gospel: “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared,…” (1 Corinthians 15:3b-5a, ESV).
Then everyone who calls upon the name Jesus will be saved. Because when one calls upon Jesus, in truth that person believes in the death, burial, resurrection and the proof of His post-resurrection sightings.
What about you? Don’t you want to get rid of the old and receive the new? This new never gets old or goes out of style or shape. When one receives the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior the old life is long-forgotten by God and He sees you and He sees His Son – perfect and without defect.