Text:
ωστε ει τις εν χριστω καινη κτισις τα αρχαια παρηλθεν ιδου γεγονεν καινα τα παντα
How I translated it:
Insomuch as anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation
The old has passed away
Behold, all has been created new.
Many of us in the church have read this in a translation that has said something along the lines of “Therefore, if any man is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has passed, and all things have been made new.”
Not only does the person become new, reborn as those of us who are “born-again” say, but more than that. We get so caught up, in the conservative church world, in being born again, that such words become trite after decades of use, and we just pass it off with an “amen” and no second thought. However, the words require us to think through them again.
We can be “in Christ” in varying degrees, to the extent that we actively trust Him. Hopefully we choose to be completely “in Christ” and not in ourselves. That may not happen every day, but we can choose day by day whether or not we will fully trust Him, and that means not trusting whatsoever in our own abilities. And as we trust fully in Him, we become that new creation, and not only do we become a new creation, more happens. For when we become a new creation, we recieve new eyes, new ears, new hands and feet, and new faculties, for then to us is opened up a set of senses by which we may perceive the world as the L-rd perceives the world, we may see others as the Son sees them, we may hear with the L-rd’s ears, and taste and smell as He does.
Excuse the metaphor, but the metaphor is nevertheless effective for communicating the mystery of what happens to us when we become followers of Yeshua ha-Mashiach. Not only do you become new, but your perception of reality changes and transforms. Your mind transforms, your heart transforms, your desires and affections transform, as you yield yourself to Him.
Permit Him to transform and redirect you, for in that you will never be the same. You come apart from the worldly influences of the darkness in this place. And your coming apart from the worldly influences is for the purpose of reconciling the world to Him.
And coming apart from the worldly influences does not mean you sever all contact with your unbelieving friends, but rather it means the internal changes that occur in you result in external changes your unbelieving friends can see and as you hang around and the L-rd in you begins to work his changes in them, this then will result in the praise of His glory. “Let your light so shine that they may see your good works and praise your Father who is in heaven.”