2 Cor 5:17    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

     

Sometimes the most difficult thing to convey to a new Christian is that they are indeed a new person. The language of the New Testament is quite clear on this: “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (Jn 3:5) and “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Pet 2:23) The concept is quite clear – we are given a new life when we come to God – “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” (Jn 1:12,13).

 

There are also two fundamental things we need to know about being this ‘new creation'. The first is that because we have been made anew, the old has gone. Sound's obvious, but it isn't! The old power of sin has been broken, the New Testament tells us. We are no longer bound by the things of the past. If we are, it is only because Satan tells us we are, and we believe him, but he's a liar!

But second, not only have we been set free FROM sin, we have been set free TO God, so we are open to Him and He to us, and because He has put His Holy Spirit within us, it is His power that overcomes the old ways of the past and energizes us to do new things in the present. We've been cut off from the past and newly energized for the present; that is why we are ‘new'.