All Things are New

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Romans 2:28-29

We are new creations in Christ. All things within us are new. The old has passed away. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we experienced a new beginning. Our spirits were made alive. That inward part of us was made completely holy (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). At the new birth, we became circumcised of heart. The fleshly elements of our inward nature were cut away. We are now vessels that carry the presence of the Lord. We are mobile tabernacles of His glory. We have been made sensitive to His leading – to His voice. We are dead to sin and alive unto God.

You may ask, “But why do we still sin?” The answer is simple... when we became born again, our spirits were made perfect, but our souls and bodies were not. We are a three-part being – spirit, soul, and body
(1 Thessalonians 5:23). Our souls consist of our mind, will, and emotions. That part of us needs to be renewed through the washing of the word of God. As we meditate on God's word, with the intention to obey its truth, we allow what's in our spirit or heart to control our actions. This process is called renewing our minds (Romans 12:2). Romans 12:1 says that we are to offer our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto Him. But maturing in the Lord is a process and not the direct result of the one time event of salvation. This is why we can stand before God as righteous, but still fall at times because of a tendency to sin.

We are to rest in the fact that we are accepted by God, but we are also to move toward maturity. Let's set aside some time each day to fellowship with the Lord and to read and meditate on His word. We are on a journey where we are growing to look a little more like Him each day. We can be confident that He that has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6).