A New Creation

Crossway posts photos with Scripture verses on their social media and while it seems like a small thing I often find myself deeply impacted by what they post. I pray that I never lose the sense of wonder that Scripture gives me. How can it be that God Himself condescended to communicate to us and preserve what He has communicated throughout the ages so that nearly 2000 years later I have it at my fingertips? Has there been a greater crime against the people of God than those who sought to deny access to the revealed will of God in His Word? Having God's revelation preserved for us is one of the greatest of all miracles.

Today Crossway posted one of the most powerful Scriptures in all of the New Testament, a Scripture that teaches us and reinforces for us one of the most powerful truths in the Bible. When an unbeliever, dead in his sins, is made alive in Christ, something miraculous happens. We are born-again, born not of woman but of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13). We used to be one thing, and now we are something completely different. Paul describes it like this:

Christians are a new creation. Everything has changed, some in subtle ways and others in major ways. I wrote on Facebook: Justification is a change in your very nature, not simply a temporary change in your attitude. As I have written before, the doctrine of the new birth, of regeneration, is one of the most neglected and misunderstood of any in the Bible.

I really think if people pondered verses like 2 Corinthians 5:17, in context with the entire New Testament, it would dramatically change how they understand a lot of issues.