A New Creation
A NEW CREATION
2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-17
The Christian life is a life of newness.
The life of the Christian who has received the benefit of the reconciliation brought about by Christ crucified is above all a life of newness.
First, for Paul, there came a new view of the person of Jesus Christ himself (5:16). Modern theology has placed a great deal of weight on this verse, and drawn some far-reaching conclusions. For example, it has been suggested that Paul no longer had any interest in the human Jesus of history, but fastened all his attention on, and pinned all his preaching to, the risen, exalted Christ; and in this way a wedge is driven between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Christ of Paul’s faith. Obviously we cannot discuss the issue in full, but it is a matter of great importance, and New Testament Christianity as the evangelical sees it stands or falls by the continuity between the Jesus of the Gospels and the exalted Lord.
More likely, what Paul meant was that formerly he, as a Pharisee, saw in Jesus only a messianic pretender “from a human point of view”; now, as a Christian, he worships him as the Christ of God and Lord of the universe. This is the difference that the resurrection has made (Romans 1:3-4; Philippians 2:6-11; 2 Timothy 2:8).
Secondly, there is the newness that conversion to Christ brings (5:17). Notice Paul’s favorite expression for being a Christian: one who is “in Christ” (12:2), who enjoys a faith-union with the living Lord and whose whole life is intertwined with that of his Savior, so that there is no real difference between “in Christ” and “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27). 1 Corinthians 6:17 is a fine statement of the close interrelationship. And by this union we are introduced to a new age, foretold by prophets and longed for as Israel’s hope of messianic blessing. So the old order has gone; the new era has dawned, with its accompanying benefits. What are they? Read Acts 2 and 3 again for the answer.