Episode #363 What “New Creation” Really Means – Real Peace, Secure Faith

When the Bible talks about how we who are in Christ are New Creations, I didn't really understand that for a long time. I used to read New Creation like a self -improvement plan, this new goal or aspiration that I had to somehow live up to. But that's not actually what it means. I'm going to start off by reading the verse that I'm referencing here. It's from 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Now I would read this an expectation of myself. If I wanted to be in Christ, I needed to prove and therefore, live as a New Creation. And so a lot of it drove performance. It drove my own self-improvement ideas. Basically, I was trying to upgrade the old me. And so I was just constantly striving to learn the good new things that I was supposed to do and try and work myself into being a New Creation. But that is not what the Bible actually says. If we are in Christ, we are already New Creations.

And I can imagine that some of you are having questions about this, like “Okay, I am a New Creation, but I still have a lot of appetites for things that are not of God. And I need to be transformed more into Jesus's likeness and I'm not there. So how could I possibly be a New Creation?”

But we're not outside of this new life that God offers us, trying to become worthy of it or worthy of him. The new is already here. It's not pending. The part that's pending is us learning to live from that new identity. The work has already been accomplished.

And so I want to offer you a new way to look at it today.

We are already in Christ New Creations.

We're not trying to achieve a new identity. We are learning to live from it. The things that we want to have changed have actually already changed because of the work that Christ accomplished.

Now learning to live in that place, we get to partner with God as he does his transforming work in us. The practicality of that changes a lot of things for us. It lightens the load where I can put too much responsibility on myself for the working and the doing and the achieving. Instead, I can rest from what Jesus has already accomplished for me. Instead of trying to achieve it, I'm learning to receive it.

When I can feel like I'm trying to work myself into an appearance of something, I'm trying to make myself look like a New Creation. I don't have to do that any longer. I can ask God to do his work in me. Because I'm not trying to prove that I could be worthy of being a New Creation. I'm walking in what he's already done. That is a lighter way to live because I don't have to figure out how I can make myself that. God already knew how and he offered it to me, and he offered it to you in Jesus.

And so we get to live as New Creations, receiving grace and mercy to provide the good that we can't possibly earn. To do his supernatural work in us, empowering us to live by his Spirit, according to his original design for us.

And so my hope in this episode to bring excitement around the fact that we can live as New Creations. Even in the places where we still struggle with sin or doubt or uncertainty, we can press into God, trusting that we can receive what he says he offers us. We can see ourselves more in true light of what God says about who we are in him. And that's the question that I invite you to take to God today:

God, how are you inviting me to change how I see myself?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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