2 Corinthians 5:17
" Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. "
Read all of 2 Corinthians 5
What a great verse to begin our 2012 Verse for Today posts. The Apostle Paul is explaining the remarkable change or transformation that takes place in a person's life when they become a Christian. Fundamentally, this change is called regeneration, or being born again. However, the Apostle Paul is referring to this fact as an encouragement or perhaps a reminder.
You see in the Christian life there is this ongoing tension between the old and the new... between the flesh and the spirit. This reality is clearly taught in Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." Romans 7 speaks of the same struggle.
The Apostle Paul brings this up in II Corinthians 5 to encourage us all to fully experience and rest in this spiritual reality. He wants us to see ourselves, the world and others from the proper perspective. Just a few verses before he stated: "that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."
Our experience of this spiritual reality takes place in time over the course of our lives. In a sense it is something that we almost enforce upon ourselves. We remind ourselves of what the Word says and then act upon it... live it out. The Apostle says to the believer, If you are in Christ, you are a new creation.
Remember it. Believe it. Live it.
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