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 A NEW CREATION

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person."

Anyone who belongs to Jesus Christ HAS BECOME A NEW PERSON. This is because God has given you a new heart and a new spirit. You have a new life empowered by the Holy Spirit to both "will" and "do" the good will of God. The new heart God has given us in Christ Jesus is not "...deceitfully wicked; who can know it?" It is a "new creation" created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has foreordained that we should walk in them.

Paul writes in Colossians 2:11-12 "When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with Him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead."

Our minds must be renewed by the Holy Spirit. It's like learning how to life a life we've never lived before grounded in truth that used to be completely alien to us. Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all of God's truth. He will take the things belonging to Jesus and make them viable and real in us.

The Holy Spirit will manifest in us what is right and true, really defining reality. He will reveal in us His peace, His purpose, His hope, and His healing that has already been deposited in us by our receiving a new nature from God. The Holy Spirit takes what God has placed in our hearts and renews our minds. It's not, "Well I've got it in my head and need to get it into my heart." My heart doesn't need to be renewed as it is already made new. It is our minds that must be conformed to the truth of all God has done in us by grace through faith.

The Holy Spirit united us to both the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have been forgiven and that is our eternal state of being. As the hymn sings, "My sin, not in part but the whole has been nailed to the Cross, and I bear it no more." Being forgiven, being at peace with God, I need not fear or panic when the Holy Spirit convicts me of sin. If I didn't understand that I am forgiven by God, conviction would only bring horror for there would be nothing I could do. Jesus alone has born the full wrath of God I deserved because of the rebellion of my sin: going my own way with a broken moral compass.

Paul writes in Romans 5:1-2 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of sharing the glory of God."

Having access into the grace in which we now stand, we can receive the forgiveness that is our heritage in Christ Jesus. The Lord cleanses us and keeps on cleansing us from all unrighteousness. All of this is because of God has done, what God has finished for us in Christ Jesus. It is His gift.

Being a new creation is an eternal reality done by God. Salvation is of the Lord alone. We are to grow up into all God has recreated us to be. That is God's promise as He has ordained that we should be conformed to the Image of Jesus Christ.

The devil screams that we haven't changed, that we are still the self-willed spiritually dead wretches we once were. Remember, the devil is a liar. When he claims we haven't changed he is calling God a liar and casting aspersions on the character and nature of God and His promises. He's saying God has done nothing because we still fail. Toddlers may take three steps and fall, but Mom and Dad pick them up and praise the three steps.

Psalm37:23-24 "The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand."

God has begun a good work in us, a work that will be brought to completion because He has caused us to be new creations now. Like a newborn baby, we have been given all we need to grow up into the full stature of mature adulthood. Jesus Christ IS Life within us. Trust the Lord for His power and grace to live from your new heart as He renews your mind.


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