“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
God knew we would struggle with this idea because we mostly don’t feel like new people. Our old habits seem to stick with us, even after we have been Christians for years. Yet God sees us as new creations and has given us many ways to think about ourselves in this way.
For example, the description of being born again which Jesus used when he spoke to Nicodemus, “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:6).
Paul explains dying to our old life. “Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) and the symbolism of baptism which he also writes about. “For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives” (Romans 6:4).
Simply put, “He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).
In all these many ways, God tells us that because of our faith, we are indeed new creations. Something new is something that hasn’t existed before. Our spiritual life is new, therefore, regardless of how we feel, “the old life is gone; a new life has begun.” God wants us to know this because it enables us to be governed by our spiritual lives.
Other posts on this topic here.
