9.3 Born again as a new creation in Christ

(2 Cor 5:17)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Under the New Covenant, the person who believes in Christ is born again as a new creation. In that moment, he experiences the redemptive work of Jesus in his heart. He becomes a new man, created according to God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24). The Holy Spirit comes to live within him.

Sometimes we take for granted some of these amazing truths. To be born again has been so commercialized that people no longer understand how significant it is. Or people may not even understand what it means to be a new creation in Christ.

There was a time under the Old Covenant when these truths were well beyond comprehension – even by the best Bible teachers in the Old Covenant. The concept of being born again was absurd. The thought if God’s Spirit living inside of man was not within human comprehension.

This explains why Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, was puzzled when Jesus told him that a man must be born again to see the kingdom of God. He was thinking in the natural when he asked if a man could enter his mother’s womb a second time. It was a quantum leap in revelation from the Old Covenant to the New.

(John 3:3-6)
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

It is important to know that our old man has been buried with Jesus in His death. But as Christ was raised from the dead, we should also walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4). We are now a new creation in Christ. The devil has a hold over your old man because of sin. The devil has no hold over you as a new creation – because of righteousness.

Thank God we have been born again as a new creation in Christ. Stop regarding yourself according to the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). There is a permanent change on the inside. You have the life of God in you. You have the new nature of Christ in you. You have His ability in you. You are no longer held back by the past and you can live for the future in Christ, according to all His promises.