Completely New Creations In Christ! The old is gone. Freedom. New Life!

Janet Massey
Jan 13, 2023
5 min read

Updated: Apr 25, 2024

January 13, 2023

A study of The New Creation in Christ! 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:1

2 Corinthians 5:17-6:1 BSB 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 reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

Kenneth S. Wuest 2 Cor 5:17-6:1 So that, assuming that anyone is in Christ, he is a creation new in quality. The antiquated, out-of-date things [which do not belong to the new life in Christ Jesus] have passed away. Behold, all things have become new in quality. But the aforementioned all things are from God as a source, the One who reconciled us to himself through the intermediate agency of Christ and gave to us the ministry whose work is that of proclaiming the message of this reconciliation, namely, that absolute deity in Christ was reconciling the world [of sinners] to himself, not putting down on the liability side of their ledger their trespasses, and lodged in us the story of the reconciliation. Therefore, on behalf of Christ and in His place we are acting as ambassadors, as though God were saying, I beg of you, please, through us as His intermediate agents. We beg you in Christ’s stead, Be reconciled at once to God. He who did not know sin in an experiential way, on behalf of us and instead of us, was made [the representative of] sin, in order that, as for us, we might become a righteousness of God in Him. Moreover also, we, working together with God, beg of you not to receive the grace of God without salutary results.

Pulling out some words from that scripture:

· Creature or creation (ktisis 2937 in strongs): creation, creature, building, always of divine work! It can be the act or the product, the in this case it would be the product of the divine word of God to finish us completely, as a new creation. He created us in our mother’s womb, but now we are born again, brand new.

· New things have come… Definition of: things have come: gegonen 1096 in strongs: I come into being, am born, become, come about, happen.

So from that, I have come into being new. As in the old is so gone, I’ve just always been this new way now. I am born new. We always say that we are born again, but do we really believe it. I think because we look the same on the outside, and we can act the same, we don’t really think it all the way through. But as spirit, soul, and body, we know that it’s just our spirit recreated. Our spirit is reborn completely new, as if the old were never there before. But that’s amazing. Let’s really take that in. We are reborn completely. That old spirit, that didn’t know God, that was sinner by nature, is gone. We are no longer sinner by nature. We are a born again believer, full of the righteousness of Christ Jesus in our spirit, who sins sometimes, but we are not sinner by nature. So we cannot call ourselves sinner. That would be against the word of God. Jesus took on all sin, so that we could live unto righteousness. Let’s receive that. Repeat after me, I am a new creation. The old sinner nature is gone. I am born anew, full of the Spirit of Jesus!!!

And that phrase, “I’m a sinner, saved by grace”, was true for us in the past. We were sinners, by nature, and we were saved by the amazing grace of God! But it really is our past, dead and buried, with Christ, and rose again. And now we are new creations, by the grace of God, set free from a sin nature!

· Having reconciled (us to himself). Having reconciled is katallaxantos 2644 I change, exchange, reconcile. Down to an exact point, intensifying, properly decisively change, as when two parties reconcile when coming or changing to the same position.

We have been reconciled to God, through Christ. And that means that we have been properly and decisively changed until we have come into the same position as Christ. Not through our own doing, or our own strength, but through the sacrifice of Jesus because of His great love for us. But now our newly created spirits get to be one with Christ Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 6:17).

· Having given us the ministry of reconciliation:

o Having given: dontos 1325 in strongs: I offer, give, I put, place, to give, also bestow, commit, grant, etc.

· Ministry: diakonian 1248 in strongs: waiting at a table, in a wider sense: service, ministration. Ministry; active service, done with a willing (voluntary) attitude. “For the believer, 1248 diakonia (“ministry”) specifically refers to spirit-empowered service guided by faith”.

So we have been given this ministry, where we get to choose to accept this ministry position, that is spirit-empowered. We get to serve people, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and guided by faith. And we know that faith without works is dead, so its just our belief with corresponding action. We get to act to share with others what Jesus did for us. That we are reconciled to God, meaning we are now new, and one with Christ (see above), and we get to share that opportunity with others. Its our choice to have a willing attitude, and serve others, and we are ambassadors of Christ, walking, as His hands and feet to share with people what He did for us. What a cool opportunity. We couldn’t do that as sinners.

We beg you in Christ’s stead: in the Wuest translation. We are going in Christ’s place. Through is the word dia, 1223 in strongs, definition “through, on account of, because of”. And we do have the ability to reconcile people to Christ only through the power of Christ. And we are sharing the gospel on account of Christ, and because of the love of Christ.

That we might become the righteousness of God in Him:

· Righteousness is diakaiosyne, 1343 in strongs: practically “a divine righteousness”. “Equity (of character or act); specially (Christian) justification – righteousness.” From dikaios: “correct, righteous, by implication innocent”

We are no longer sinners, we are the Righteousness of God in Christ, meaning when we are those new creations, and our spirit is one with the spirit of Jesus, and we walk in Him, we walk as the righteousness of Christ Jesus… Repeat after me: I am the righteousness of God, in Christ. In Christ, I am righteous.

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Video version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkCDZrIujm4

References

The New Testament: An Expanded Translation by Kenneth S. Wuest Copyright Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co 1961

Bible Hub

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance