Resurrection Life in Christ (5)

How believers in Jesus are new creations 

​As we continue contemplating the resurrection life we have in Christ, i.e., life in union with Christ, filled with the Spirit, and as partakers of the many blessings of redemption, we come to another way to look at this. Today’s passages teach us we can look at our salvation in Christ is that we have been made new creations in Christ. When we were lost in sin, we belonged spiritually to the old creation that is under a curse and given over to sin and death. But in Christ we are partakers of the new creation that is redeemed by the blood of Christ and consecrated unto God. The key verses are below. 

The first verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” That is pretty simple. If you are “in Christ” by grace through faith, then you are “a new creation.” When the two become one in marriage, their old lives are gone and their new lives as one begins. They cannot at the same time be free of each other and also be united with each other in marriage. 

Likewise, when a sinner becomes one with Jesus through faith, the old unbeliever under judgment is gone. The new forgiven and reconciled believer has come. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Outside of Christ, I shared only in what was cursed and destined to pass away. But in Christ, I share in what is redeemed and destined for glory. All those in Christ are new creations. 

The second verse is Galatians 6:15, which says, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Physical Old Covenant circumcision does not count for anything for becoming or being a child of God. The only thing that counts is being “a new creation” through faith in Christ. Old Covenant circumcision ultimately symbolized the need to be born again, to be circumcised in the heart. 

The Word says, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). Even clearer, it also says, “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:29). What is the circumcision of the heart? It is a rebellious heart being changed by God’s grace into an obedient heart. God commands, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (Deuteronomy 10:16; cf. Jeremiah 4:4; Acts 7:51). Superficial outward obedience does not please God. That is not God’s will for your life! He requires genuine inward obedience. He requires a circumcised heart. 

Since we cannot do that on our own, a circumcise heart is a gift of God’s grace received through faith. “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33; 32:39-40; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26-27). 

Only God can change the heart because only God can give us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is ONLY GIVEN to those who are broken over their sin and turn to Christ for salvation in raw humility and utter desperation. They are a new creation in Christ. They are born of the Spirit, circumcised of heart, filled with gratitude and love toward God, and partakers of new creation. The old has gone; the new has come to them powerfully and mercifully in Christ Jesus. 

Paul can therefore write, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).