New Creation

EFFECTS OF THE CROSS 2 of 7

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

Yesterday we used the analogy of a lifeboat rescuing people from a sinking ship, and said that when they jumped from the ship into the lifeboat they were saved. The only thing about that picture is that it doesn’t in any way convey the change that takes place in the person as they are transferred into the lifeboat. In reality they are completely transformed. In the course of the following meditations we will be seeing a variety of ways that they are transformed – and there are many! Sometimes people try to make out becoming a Christian is not a big thing – it is! It is a total life transformation!

The NIV translation we are using here says that this person is a new creation. When you ‘make’ something you take existing raw materials and use them to produce something new. When you ‘create’ something you start from nothing. In that sense God is the only ‘creator’ (even an artist has a canvas and uses paints and just reforms them). As we’ll see in days to come, one of the critical things that happens when a person truly becomes a Christian is that God puts His Holy Spirit into them. Before you were just a person, now you are a God-indwelt person, and that means you are something or someone completely different. The old Authorised Version speaks of a new ‘creature’. This new creature didn’t exist before. This creature didn’t just have a bit of God in before and now has lots of God in. No, this is an entirely new being. Yes, the memory is still the same, the body is still the same, the intellect is still the same, but all of them are now permeated by the presence of God. Have we never realised what a transformation there was, or have we, perhaps, just grown casual about what happened? Perhaps, as you go through these meditations it could be a time to start seeing afresh the wonder of the being that you now are, you fresh creation of God!

Perhaps you’ve never had this life transformation, perhaps you’ve never come to that point of repentance and seeking after God through Jesus Christ. If that is so, then perhaps you should go back through the Lent Meditations and see the truths there – right from the beginning – to see your need and how God has met it. Maybe you have been a Christian for a long time and, as we said previously, familiarity has dulled your perception of the truth. Perhaps these meditations could be a life stirring time. The starting point therefore, is checking what you think and feel about this verse today. Have you been thrilled by the wonder of what took place in you? Are you still thrilled by it? Does the wonder of being a new creation really thrill you, or do you find a defensiveness rising in you that says, “I don’t know what this is all about. Who cares!”?