We continue in our wonderful day in the Lord broadcast and talking about the great riches we have in Christ as Christians. These treasures and blessings are things that are ours because we are Christians. All of us have these whether we are walking with the Lord as we should or not. If you are believer, the things we have been talking about for the last few weeks are privileges and blessings and treasures that are yours in Christ. This week we are looking at a few more
We begin with 2 Corinthians 5:17 that talks about the fact we are new creations, or creatures. It can be translated either way. It says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” “Anyone in Christ,” speaks of all believers. One thing this verse tells us is that at the moment of salvation we are changed into new creations. We are different. We are not simply warmed-over sinners. We are now saints. We have a new nature. We are not simply new and improved; we are new creatures. That is important because often Christianity is presented almost like a self-help faith in which if we become Christians, we can do this that or the other thing and become new people. The repercussions and outreach of our Christian walk should be that we improve our lives. That we become better people. That we are more what Christ would have us be. That is all true, but that is not the initial stage here. That is a consequence, or result, of the fact that we are new creatures in Christ. We want to appreciate what the Lord has done for us by making us new creatures.
Colossians 3:9-10 says, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” We laid aside the old self and that is the old fleshly nature that we were before Christ. The new self is the new creature. He doesn’t say to put it on it, he says we have put on. What we are looking at here is that our status, our position in Christ has changed. We are no longer what we used to be. We are now new creatures in Jesus Christ. We have that new self. We put off the old fleshly self we were before, and we are now new people in the Lord Jesus Christ . . .
