If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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Go to the source! Discover what the Bible says about …
These pages are designed to aid study or investigation for Christian discipleship through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or meeting one to one. The questions could be used alone allowing each person to use their own Bible.
Introduction
Our identity is how we think of ourselves. The good news is that Jesus brings us an entirely new identity as His new creation. Our old identity brought struggles; a feeling we could never change. Others could impose an identity on us that would not allow change. In this imposition one finds the source of racism, elitism, genderism, ... Yet in Christ God gives us a new identity that brings freedom to live a life of love. It is not one imposed by others, or one we cling to in insecurity.
Bible Zone
- New Creation Counts - What counts with God is a new creation.
- New Creation - If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.
- Live the new creation - Free of control from old ways, we choose a new life.
- None Despised - All accepted by God are accepted by us, without distinction.
Paul makes the point that the cross of Christ and the new creation are the things that count, not religious activities and forms. The key form of the day, about which people were being judged was whether or not they were circumcised. Galatians 6:14-15
- How does Paul value the cross, and why?
- Why would religious forms (example - circumcision) not be of value?
- What is the significance of being made a new person by God?
Galatians 6:14 ... Because of that cross,* my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died.15 It doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.
Paul elaborates on what it means to be a new creation in 2 Corinthians 5v16-19.
- What makes someone a new creation?
- What impact does being a new creation have on our relationship with God?
- What impact does being a new creation have on us as people?
2 Corinthians 5:16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
Ephesians 4:22-24 develops the idea of the new creation, looking at the affect on our lifestyle.
- What is wrong with the old self?
- What is the new person made like?
- Is there something you need to do to live out becoming a new person?
Ephesians 4:22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
Colossians 3:10-11 draws out that some implications for our being new creations.
- What do we become as a new creation?
- What is the significance of their being no difference between people before God?
- With which people do you make distinctions, that God our Father does not?
Colossians 3:10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.11 In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,* circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,* slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
NEW CREATION
