By Bob Wilkin

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (NKJV).

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (NIV).

So if any one [be] in Christ, [there is] a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new (Darby).

Was Paul saying that when a person is born again, all his sinful desires have ceased? Was he saying that at the moment of faith, one is spiritually mature?

Hardly. See Paul’s own testimony in Rom 7:13-25 about his early Christian experience of fighting fleshly lusts.

Also, read Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians. Was their behavior suddenly and radically changed? Or did they need to grow? See also Paul’s letters to the Galatians and Thessalonians. Growth takes time and is not guaranteed.

The Greek of the first part of 2 Cor 5:17 is this: Hōste ei tis en Christō kainē ktisis. It’s important to note that there are no words for he is or there is in the original text, which can significantly impact our interpretation.

The NIV and Darby translations suggest inserting the words there is before “a new creation.” So does The New Geneva Study Bible.

Paul is saying that our worldview changes when we are born again. We suddenly realize that we are part of a new world. Some have everlasting life and are part of God’s forever family. We will all be together forever. Others lack everlasting life, and unless they come to faith before they die, they will spend eternity separated from us and from God’s kingdom and family.

It is not that our behavior or desires change when we are born again. It is that we realize that God is bringing in something radically new. While the kingdom is not yet here, citizens of that kingdom are here, and the Lord Jesus is soon to return to establish it.

The verses before and after 2 Corinthians 5:17 support that interpretation. In verse 16, Paul said that we no longer regard anyone according to the flesh. People are not primarily viewed as Jews or Gentiles, rich or poor, or male or female. People are either in God’s family, or they are not. In verse 20, Paul says that we plead with unbelievers to be reconciled to God.

Did you have that experience when you came to faith? Did you become concerned for the salvation of your friends and loved ones? Did you begin to pray that they would come to faith? Did you look forward to the soon return of Christ? If so, you were experiencing part of this new creation worldview.

Furnish makes this excellent comment:

The Greek has only kainē ktisis (a new creation), so a subject and verb must be supplied; either “he is” (as in most English versions) or there is (as in Mof., NEB, JB). The latter is preferable because the context, as well as the background of the expression kainē ktisis in apocalyptic Judaism, suggests that something more inclusive than the new being of individual believers is in mind. In Paul’s letters, ktisis virtually always refers to the creation in its entirety (Rom 1:20, 25; 8:19, 20, 21, 22; the one exception is Rom 8:39), and it is wrong to follow the Vulgate in translating it here as “creature” (so, e.g., KJV, ASV, Wey.). Paul uses the same phrase, a new creation, in Gal 6:15, and he appears to have been the one who introduced it into the vocabulary of the Christian church (II Corinthians, pp. 314-15).

Garland agrees, saying, “In the context, he is talking about changing one’s way of looking at things; and this change, which occurs at conversion, is a subjective experience” (2 Corinthians, p. 286). I think by subjective experience he means that individual believers comprehend this new creation differently. And our grasp of the new creation that has invaded our world can and should grow over time.

Lenski comments, “‘Creation’ leads us to think of what God did when he created the world” (1-2 Corinthians, p. 1039). The new creation is not yet complete. It is just the beginning. Yet to unfold are the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Judgment Seat of Christ, the Millennium, the Great White Throne Judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth. All of that is part of the new creation. What God began in the Garden of Eden is in the process of being restored in the new creation.

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. That is good news. There’s a new world coming.

Keep grace in focus.

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Bob Wilkin is Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society. He and Sharon live in Highland Village, TX. He has racewalked twelve marathons.