2 Corinthians 5:17, the Greek word for new in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is kainos, not neos and this is not a technical footnote, this is the whole point, the Greek language had two words for new. Neos means new in time, something that just came into existence, but it is the same kind of thing as everything else. A new shirt is neos, it is new, but it is still a shirt. Kaine means new in kind, a new category, something that has never existed before, something qualitatively different. When Paul says a new creation, he is not saying God gave you a new version of the same thing, he is saying God made a new kind of thing.
A caterpillar does not become a new caterpillar, it becomes a butterfly, that is kaine. The word for creation is ktisis and that word does something remarkable, it reaches all the way back to the very first page of the Bible. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word used for God creating the heavens and the earth is ktisis, Paul is using the exact same same word and here is what that means, when Paul says you are a new creation, he is not saying God improved you, he is saying God created you. The only being who can make a creation is the Creator and Paul is saying that is what God did in Christ. God did to you what he did in the beginning, he spoke and something that did not exist came into being, that is the claim.
You are not a fixer upper, you are not a renovation project, you are a creation. Consider what that would do to a person who has spent their whole life trying to become new, every January, a new resolution, every failure, a new resolve, every sermon, a new effort and it never sticks, because the old self cannot fix the old self, the old self can only produce more of the old self. But that is not what 2 Corinthians 5:17 is describing, this is not another round of trying harder, this is a new kind of thing and a new kind of thing does not come from effort, it comes from a creator.
Consider the two words everything hangs on, because the whole verse turns on them in Christ, Paul says if anyone is in Christ and that phrase in Christ is the most important phrase in all of Paul’s writing. Paul uses in Christ over and over in every letter like a signature and it is not a metaphor he invented for decoration, it is a description of an actual union. When you put your trust in Jesus, something happens that is deeper than a decision and bigger than a feeling, you are united to him, his death becomes your death, his resurrection becomes your resurrection.
A caterpillar does not become a new caterpillar, it becomes a butterfly, that is kaine. The word for creation is ktisis and that word does something remarkable, it reaches all the way back to the very first page of the Bible. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word used for God creating the heavens and the earth is ktisis, Paul is using the exact same same word and here is what that means, when Paul says you are a new creation, he is not saying God improved you, he is saying God created you. The only being who can make a creation is the Creator and Paul is saying that is what God did in Christ. God did to you what he did in the beginning, he spoke and something that did not exist came into being, that is the claim.
You are not a fixer upper, you are not a renovation project, you are a creation. Consider what that would do to a person who has spent their whole life trying to become new, every January, a new resolution, every failure, a new resolve, every sermon, a new effort and it never sticks, because the old self cannot fix the old self, the old self can only produce more of the old self. But that is not what 2 Corinthians 5:17 is describing, this is not another round of trying harder, this is a new kind of thing and a new kind of thing does not come from effort, it comes from a creator.
Consider the two words everything hangs on, because the whole verse turns on them in Christ, Paul says if anyone is in Christ and that phrase in Christ is the most important phrase in all of Paul’s writing. Paul uses in Christ over and over in every letter like a signature and it is not a metaphor he invented for decoration, it is a description of an actual union. When you put your trust in Jesus, something happens that is deeper than a decision and bigger than a feeling, you are united to him, his death becomes your death, his resurrection becomes your resurrection.