Mission Venture Ministries

Upon salvation, a person becomes a new creation, holy and blameless in God’s sight. Some people however, think they can receive salvation and go on living as they did before. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 states: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” 

It is important to realize that this new creation is not an addition to the old you but, rather, a completely new self. 

A person in Christ is a person forever changed. According to Ephesians 4:22-24 in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 

Not only will sin lose its attraction for the believer, but there will also be an appreciation for God’s Word and a desire to reflect His righteousness more and more. If we don’t see evidence of these things in our life, what does that say about the state of our heart? 

To understand the new creation, John 1:13 tells us that this new birth was brought about by the will of God. We did not inherit the new nature from our parents or decide to re-create ourselves anew. Neither did God simply clean up our old nature; He created something entirely fresh and unique. Only the Creator could accomplish such a feat. 

Old things have passed away. The “old” refers to everything that is part of our old nature such as pride, love of sin, reliance on works, and our former opinions, habits and passions. Most significantly, what we loved has passed away, especially the supreme love of self and with it self-righteousness, self-promotion, and self-justification. The new creature looks toward Christ instead of inwardly toward self. The old things died and were nailed to the cross. 

Behold new things have come. Old things are replaced with new ones that are full of life and the glory of God. The newborn soul delights in the things of God and despises the things of the world and the flesh. 

Our new purposes, feelings, desires, and understandings are new and different. We see the world differently. The Bible is now a joy to read and study. There are new feelings toward people and a new love toward family and friends. 

The things we once loved, we now hate. The sin we once held onto, we now want to get rid of forever. We “put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9), and put on the “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). 

Please note that there is a difference between continuing to sin and continuing to live in sin. No one reaches sinless perfection in this life, but the redeemed Christian is being sanctified, made holy day by day, sinning less and hating it more each time he fails. Yes, we still sin, but against our better judgment and less and less frequently as we mature in our walk with Christ. 

Our new self hates the sin that still has a hold on us. The difference is that the new creation is no longer a slave to sin, as we formerly were. We are now freed from sin and it no longer has power over us (Romans 6:6-7). 

Now we are empowered by righteousness. We now have the choice to “let sin reign” or to count ourselves “dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11-12).

All things have become new illustrates the beginning of our transformation, our inward renewal and regeneration that will culminate in the fullness of our salvation to be experienced in eternity. Our Savior’s death and resurrection ushered in a foretaste of an entirely new world still to come: “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Eventually, everything in creation will be made new (Romans 8:19–20; Isaiah 65:17–25). 

The Christian’s new self “is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10). And through the inner working of the Holy Spirit, believers grow into the image of Christ “with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). God promises to give us a new heart, by removing our “heart of stone” and replacing it with a “heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26). The changes begin in the heart but then spill out to our actions and behavior (Romans 12:2). 

Jesus promises that salvation cannot be lost (John 10:28), once a child of God, always a child of God. But it is possible to become apathetic about our identity in Christ. Does your lifestyle demonstrate that you are a “new creation?” What is your attitude toward sin and the pursuit of righteousness? Though none of us will live perfectly, the desire of our heart should be to move in the direction of our new self, which has been created in Christ’s likeness. 

Remember that once we are a new creation instead of living to please ourselves, we now live to please Christ, serve Him (2 Corinthians 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:1), and look out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4; Galatians 6:2). 

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