2 Corinthians 5:17, the already and the not yet and completed at the end. The already, in Christ you are a new creation, right now, not when you get your life together, not when you finally conquer that habit. Right now, you’re standing before God is settled, the old verdict has passed away, that is positional, that is who you are. The not yet, that new creation is being worked out in your daily life, you are being transformed, the old patterns are being dismantled. The new self is being formed and that takes time, it takes a lifetime, 2 Corinthians 4:16, that is the process, the new creation is not a feeling you chase, it is a reality you grow into. The completion, the new creation will be finished when Christ makes all things new, Revelation 21:5, the same word, new, the same voice, behold.
2 Corinthians 5:17, you have been reading your whole life is the same promise God makes at the end of the whole story and this is where the picture gets enormous, because the new creation was never just about you, it was always about everything. The prophets promised a new heavens and a new earth, a place with no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, a place where the garden is restored and the rhythm God built into the beginning carries on into the end. Paul takes that cosmic promise and presses it down onto a single person, if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation, the same God who is making all things new is making you new, you are not a side project of the new creation, you are a preview of it.
So, here is the truth that sets you free, you are not a failure, because you still struggle, you are a new creation who is still being renewed, the struggle does not cancel the identity, the identity is what makes the struggle survivable. You are not fighting to become new, you are fighting from already being new. And this is where the story gets even bigger, because the new creation was never a New Testament afterthought, it was God’s plan from the very beginning, Paul did not invent this idea, he was reading the prophets and the prophets have been saying it for centuries, Isaiah 43:18-19. Centuries before Paul, God was already saying, I am going to do a new thing, the old things do not live there, something new is coming and then Ezekiel takes it even further.
2 Corinthians 5:17, you have been reading your whole life is the same promise God makes at the end of the whole story and this is where the picture gets enormous, because the new creation was never just about you, it was always about everything. The prophets promised a new heavens and a new earth, a place with no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, a place where the garden is restored and the rhythm God built into the beginning carries on into the end. Paul takes that cosmic promise and presses it down onto a single person, if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation, the same God who is making all things new is making you new, you are not a side project of the new creation, you are a preview of it.
So, here is the truth that sets you free, you are not a failure, because you still struggle, you are a new creation who is still being renewed, the struggle does not cancel the identity, the identity is what makes the struggle survivable. You are not fighting to become new, you are fighting from already being new. And this is where the story gets even bigger, because the new creation was never a New Testament afterthought, it was God’s plan from the very beginning, Paul did not invent this idea, he was reading the prophets and the prophets have been saying it for centuries, Isaiah 43:18-19. Centuries before Paul, God was already saying, I am going to do a new thing, the old things do not live there, something new is coming and then Ezekiel takes it even further.