“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The new birth is a real creation by God.
This article looks at what it means to be God’s child and His workmanship: a brand-new creature with a clean slate, created for the good works God prepared beforehand. Read it, and say aloud who you now are in Christ.
Behold,
I Make All Things New
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation (2Cor 5:17,18).
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 Joh 3:2).
Beloved, we are children of God. This is John’s opening message in the third Chapter of his first Epistle to the Church. In the first verse he marveled at the immeasurable love that the Father must have for us that we should be called the children of God. He continued by saying: “Beloved, now we are children of God”. I am sure that the Holy Spirit is the One speaking through John to make that statement with emphasis on the word “now”. He didn’t say tomorrow we will be, or when Christ returns, or during the millennium; he said, “Now we are children of God”.
We have already been born of God. We are His children. We are not trying to do some good works so we may become His children, We aren’t praying several hours every week to become His children; We already are.
He came to His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.
John makes it clear that this birth is not the natural flesh and blood type, neither is it by human design; But that it is all of God, from Him and by Him. Now, we are God’s children.
The eighth verse of the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians tells us that we have been saved by grace through faith. We did not earn our salvation by our works or any sacrifice on our part. It all came to us through what God did for us in Christ Jesus. God did all the work, so none of us have anything to boast about. The next verse in this Ephesians passage, in the Berean Standard Bible, continues the message, saying: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life” (Eph 2:10, BSB). The Spirit just finished telling us that our becoming new creatures in Christ Jesus is all God’s doing. Then, in this next verse, He continues by saying that we are God’s handiwork, His workmanship.
Here is the whole passage in the Berean Standard Bible:
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life (Eph 2:8-10, BSB).
I know you might have done this before, but if you have never done it, do this now or the next time you stand in front of a mirror. Look straight at yourself, and with a lovely smile, speak out so you can hear yourself say–”I am a Child of God”. Say it aloud three times, while looking straight at yourself in the mirror. Say it convincingly and watch the impact it’ll have on you.
This is not an empty exercise; you are a child of the Living God. You know it, the devil knows it, and God is the first to know and to rejoice about it. He rejoiced over you with joy! You are His beloved child. You need to say it to yourself until this dawns on your heart, and until ’you know that you know’ that it’s true. Remember Jesus said it–that the Father Himself loves you. That’s why He spared no expense at making you a “New Creation” in Christ Jesus so you can return to having perfect fellowship with Him. You are His masterpiece. Some people believe the Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, but it pales in comparison to the masterpiece God has crafted you to be in Christ Jesus.
Listen to the verse again: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).
Can you hear what this verse is saying? We are His masterpiece created in Christ Jesus unto good works. What good works? Which good works?
He answers: “Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” The Berean Standard Bible renders this section as saying “to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.”
That is, God recreated us in Christ Jesus to do good works, but there are specific good works which He has foreordained specially for you and me to do. In His plan, He mapped out some specific work for you, and some specific work for me to do, and my responsibility is to work closely with Him so I discover His will and align with that specific good work which He has aforetime mapped out for me. I am not to go off and do my own will or choose a good work that I like, even if it is the greatest good work known to man. I will not be doing His will, and that will not earn me a reward. It’s a purposeful ’New Creation’ life designed by God to achieve His goals in each of us in this new day.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
To re-emphasize this, the passage did not say “old things will pass away”, But that “old things have passed away”; and not that “all things will become new”, but that “all things have become new.” He’s a new-born destined and ordained for great things. This new person did not exist before; he is a brand-new creature with a totally clean slate, given birth to by God Almighty and is a member of the new species in Christ Jesus.
For illustration sake, consider a really bad serial killer, like the one on the cross with Christ or one with a worse criminal record. Let’s say he heard the word of salvation this moment, becomes receptive to it, repents, turns to Christ, receives Him as savior genuinely, and confesses Him as Lord. God will instantly offer Him remission for all His sins, and the righteousness of Jesus will be deposited into his account. He immediately receives forgiveness for all his past atrocities and his record is wiped clean as if he has never sinned and eternal life becomes his. He’s immediately one of those saints you’ve read about in Scriptures, in the same Body of Christ. In fact, he becomes one with Christ Jesus who lived a perfect Godly life. This man’s old life is totally gone, and a new one has come.
This is what happens when a man accepts Christ as Lord and Savior. He’s recreated, reborn as a new spiritual baby. He’s instantly born of God in the real sense. This is not metaphorically speaking; this is reality. When a person believes the message of salvation and accepts Jesus as Savior and the Lord of his or her life, the individual becomes a new child of God. That person instantly becomes a member of His Body and one with Christ Jesus.
His record of sin from the old life no longer applies because that old man has passed away, the old is gone, the new has come. The new child starts with a new slate in Christ Jesus. In Christ he lives and moves and have its being. It’s a miracle of new birth or new creation. This is the greatest of all miracles. And it happens when a man receives Eternal Life; when a child of the devil becomes a Child of God. Notice again: When a man who is spiritually dead is transferred out of the realm of death into the realm of Life(into the Kingdom of the Son of God), that indeed is the miracle of miracles.
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin.” Crucifixion points the way to death. In the Spirit’s great declaration of our Identification with Christ, He said that our old man, the fallen man from Adam who was filled with satanic nature, was nailed to the Cross in Christ. Christ went there, not for Himself,
not as a martyr, but as a substitute. The old man is dead and he’s no more. And we by identification with Christ can enjoy the privilege of Christ’s victory over sin. Our old self was crucified with Christ so the body of sin might be rendered powerless. Again, when he says old things are passed away he means everything concerning the old nature is gone. This is not a makeover of the old nature. This is not a putting back together or reassembling of broken life but a total removal of the old spirit-man and a creation of something totally new by God Almighty.
The next verse ensures we get what the Holy Spirit is saying to us here by stating that this is not a work of man by any shape or form. But that all these “things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. This work of creation of God-like spirit-beings, of course, can only be performed by the Almighty God Himself. And this is a continuation of His unchangeable insurplantable purpose which He has been executing from before the foundation of the earth which is: to make “man in His own image and likeness”. He will bring this everlasting plan to pass. For God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:4-6).
NEW CREATION
Application
- Say aloud what God says of you: “I am a child of God,” and believe it (John 1:12).
- Receive your clean slate: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).
- Ask the Lord for the good works He prepared for you, and walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
- Look forward in hope: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3:2).
Key Takeaway
The One who made you new has not stopped: “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
Conclusion
You are a new creation, made by God, and loved by Him. Live today as the one He has made you to be.
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