“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
You and I have been forever changed! We have a new name and a new nature, and we can’t ever go back to where we came from. God Himself has taken our lives in His hands, and made us new. He has filled us with Himself, and the powerful Holy Spirit has made us His personal temple. (1 Cor 6:19). Infinite, everlasting, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God has made your finite frame His personal abode. This means you are a piece of divine real estate, truly God territory and an embassy of Heaven. Everything inside the temple can access diplomatic immunity!
In Paul’s writings to the Corinthian church, (Scripture above) he says that when we came “into” Jesus, we literally became someone different. He said “Old things have passed away” and “All things have become new”. Not just some things but all things! So why are many of us struggling to make it and live a blessed life? Why does it sometimes feel so hard to overcome the challenges that arise? Mainly because we are still doing it the old way when we have already been changed from within and been made new. It is a mystical transformation which happens the day we step into a relationship with Jesus and we can start by believing that we were made new. Even Neuroscience confirms that becoming conscious of something is the first step towards transformation. Our brains begin to change when our thoughts change, and when we open up to the new creation reality that Jesus has opened up for us. What if we believed that Jesus has changed our status? What if we started to accept the fact that we are not bad and sinful, and powerless to change? What if we opened our minds and hearts to the fact that we don’t have to conform to the ways of the world, or to the old patterns we were in? We begin to see glimpses of the new reality. We begin to see that we are indeed changed, and that it is happening easily.
Paul is telling the church to start by perceiving this reality of newness. He says “Behold all things have become new”. Friend, can you behold it? When you “behold” it (when you begin to see the possibility of your newness), you can begin to be-hold it; to “be” it and to “hold” it. You can walk in the power of the new you, living each day from the heavenly place inside you, where you are ruling and reigning with Christ Himself, the source of all life.
So here’s the good news, and you can shout it out: “Old things have passed away”! Yes – that old addiction, that old habit, the old struggle has truly moved right out. Embrace the new. Embrace the new you. Patterns have been broken by the power of the blood of Jesus! Every time you fight with the manifestations of the old “you”, you are resurrecting that person who died with Christ. Galatians 2:18 says:“if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor” (again).The “system” would tell you that you are fighting a battle, and that it will take years of healing, therapy, counseling etc to get free. but Jesus says He became sin so that you could (instantly by faith) become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). The truth is that the “old” you died with Christ (Galatians 2:20) and all the struggles of that old man died with him. You are born again and new! It is now Christ (in you) who lives. Here’s what Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” You are new, no different to the way a caterpillar becomes a butterfly in a few moments, becoming a completely different, beautiful thing.
This word is for you whether you just began to walk with Jesus, or whether you have been a “believer” for many years. We all start out excited and joyful to be walking with Jesus, and then we get into the “system” and fall back into the struggle of performance. But you are a new creature in Christ and you can be as new as you want to be, as new as you can believe. Yes you are new. Yes, the old life is gone. Yes, if you can perceive it, you can receive it – it is yours! You are forever changed. You are a brand new creature in Christ!
Minoli Haththotuwa, 1 April 2023
