NEW BIRTH – NEW CREATION

Redemption is not a mere reformation of character, an adoption of or adherence to a new set of moral rules, a rejuvenation of a sleeping soul, or a mere improvement from a lower to a supposedly higher level of spirituality. Redemption is an absolute re-creation of the human spirit and the emergence of a new spirit, a new heart, a new being – the New Creation in Christ. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God…” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The new birth, the born-again experience is not a religious experience. Something real and concrete happens when a person is born-again. He or she is made a New Creation, such specie of being that never existed before the new birth experience – a re-created human spirit. Although nothing might have changed outwardly, but something vital occurred inwardly. The old man died and was replaced by a new man: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10). The Spirit of God dwells in this new man; hence, it is written: “…greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1John 4:4b).

This fact of the New Birth – that a person is created ‘anew’ or born again – is the distinction which Christ brought into humanity. It does not come by conformity to certain customs or norms; not by status, or by wealth, or beauty, or blood; it is not by color or complexion, tribe or tongue; but the majestic inquiry is, whether a person is born again, a new creature in Christ Jesus: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Galatians 6:15).