What Does The Following Phrase...?

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.

"In Christ" These two words comprise a brief but most profound statement of the inexhaustible significance of the believer`s redemption, which includes the following.

1. The believer`s security in Christ, who bore in His body God`s judgment against sin.

2. The believers`s acceptance in Him with whom God alone is well pleased.

3. The believer`s future assurance in Him who is the resurrection to eternal life and the sole guarantor of the believer's inheritance in heaven.

4. The believer's participation in the divine nature of Christ, the everlasting Word.

"new creation" This describes something that is created at a qualitatively new level of excellence. It refers to regeneration or the new birth. This expression encompasses the Christian`s forgiveness of sins paid for in Christ`s substitutionary death.

"old things have passed away" After a person is regenerate, old value systems, priorities, beliefs, loves, and plans are gone. Evil and sin are still present, but the believer sees them in a new perspective, and they no longer control him.

"all things...new" The Greek grammar indicates that this newness is a continuing condition of fact. The believer`s new spiritual perception of everything is a constant reality for him, and he now lives for eternity, not temporal things. James identifies this transformation as the faith that produces works.

MIMI