There are parts of our past we would gladly erase if we could.
Choices we wish we hadn’t made. Words we can’t take back. Seasons when we knew better and did it anyway. Sometimes enough time passes that everyone else seems to have forgotten, but somehow we haven’t. We can still remember exactly who we were, and if we’re not careful, we can begin believing that person is still who God sees when He looks at us.
Then Paul gives us these incredible words:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
Anyone.
Not the person who managed to clean up her life before coming to Jesus. Not the person with the respectable past or the testimony that doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable.
Anyone who is in Christ.
And Paul doesn’t say we’re slightly improved versions of the people we used to be.
He says we are new.
Today’s Saving Grace of God
2 Corinthians 5:14–21 (ESV)
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Setting the Scene
Paul’s relationship with the church in Corinth wasn’t always an easy one. His letters address division, sin, false teaching, conflict, and questions about his own ministry. But here in 2 Corinthians, Paul brings his readers back to the reason everything has changed:
Christ died for us.
And because He died and was raised, those who belong to Him are no longer called to live only for themselves.
Then Paul takes us even deeper.
God was working through Christ to reconcile us to Himself.
Reconciliation is what happens when a broken relationship is restored. Sin separated us from a holy God, and we could not repair that separation ourselves. So God did what we couldn’t.
He came after us.
Through Jesus, God made a way for sinners to be forgiven, restored, and brought back into relationship with Him.
And right in the middle of Paul’s explanation comes a sentence that changes how we understand our past, our present, and even ourselves:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
Reflection
There are people who remember the old me.
I remember her too.
I remember choices I’m not proud of. I remember seasons when I wandered far outside God’s will. And if I spend enough time looking backward, it’s surprisingly easy to start seeing myself through the lens of everything I once got wrong.
But God doesn’t ask me to keep introducing myself by the name of someone He made new.
That doesn’t mean my past didn’t happen. Grace doesn’t rewrite history and pretend sin never existed.
It does something far more extraordinary.
Grace changes my standing before God.
“The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
I love that Paul doesn’t say we make ourselves new.
God does.
That’s important for those of us who have spent too much of our lives believing we need to somehow fix ourselves before we’re worthy of coming close to Him.
Paul tells us exactly where this new life comes from:
“All this is from God.”
God reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
He didn’t wait for us to climb our way back.
He made the way back.
And look at how personal that becomes in verse 21:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin…”
Jesus, who had no sin of His own, took ours.
Why?
“…so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
That’s the exchange at the heart of the gospel.
Our sin.
His righteousness.
Jesus standing between the two.
I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to think about that without being overwhelmed by it.
But there’s another part of this passage I don’t want to miss.
God doesn’t make us new simply so we can spend the rest of our lives quietly being grateful that He rescued us.
Paul says He gives us “the message of reconciliation.”
The grace we received becomes grace we can tell someone else about.
Maybe that’s one reason our stories still matter.
We don’t have to hide who we were, and we don’t have to live there either.
Our past can become part of the testimony that points someone else toward Jesus.
We can say:
I know what it is to need grace.
I know what it is to need forgiveness.
And I know the One who gave me both.
Short Prayer
Father, sometimes I still look backward and see every mistake, every failure, and every season when I chose my own way instead of Yours. Thank You for reminding me that You see something different. You see Your child, reconciled to You through Jesus and made new in Christ.
When my past starts speaking louder than Your promises, help me remember who You say I am. The old has passed away. You have made me new.
Jesus, I will never understand the depth of love that took my sin to the cross and gave me Your righteousness in return. Thank You for doing what I could never do for myself.
Now help me live like someone who has been made new. Use even the broken pieces of my story to point someone else toward Your grace, forgiveness, and love.
In Jesus’ sweet name, I pray. Amen.
Reflection Question
Are you still defining yourself by something God says has passed away, and what would change if you truly began seeing yourself as a new creation in Christ?
Closing Encouragement
Your past may explain pieces of your story.
It does not get to name you.
If you are in Christ, God has already told you who you are:
A new creation.
The old has passed away.
The new has come.
And the God who reconciled you to Himself can use even your story to help someone else find their way home.
Helpful Daily Resources
- Read the full chapter on Bible.com ~ 2 Corinthians 5
- Enjoy Bible.com ~ Verse of the Day
- Try Bible.com ~ Bible Recap: Read the Bible in a Year Plan