Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
On Wednesday, we begin a new year - the year of our Lord 2025. For some of us, the passing of the old year cannot come soon enough because difficult, challenging things have happened in 2024. For others of us, 2024 has been a beautiful, blessed year. If our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming of a new year symbolizes a fresh start, a new beginning, and we live in the faith that whatever happens in the new year, Jesus will be with us and will use the experiences of our lives to mold and shape us after His will.
The Bible declares a radical thing in 2 Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Jesus, in His conversation with Nicodemus, spoke of being "born again" - born of water (physical birth) and the Spirit (spiritual rebirth). This is more than just a wiping clean of the slate through the forgiveness of the Cross and a do over. The Bible is speaking here of regeneration - a change of nature from the old sin nature to the new spiritual nature. It is a passing from death to life.
Perhaps the clearest picture of this new creation in nature is the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly. The caterpillar enters the chrysalis (the cocoon) and a transformation takes place. What emerges is no longer a caterpillar. Now it has become a butterfly. Where before it could only crawl, now it can fly. Its wormy body has been transformed by the growing of wings into something more beautiful and more powerful than it was in its old existence.
This is the way of the new creation. When we put our faith in Jesus, trust Him for forgiveness and entrust our lives to Him in consecration, we are born again in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters our lives and takes up residence in our heart - not the muscle that pumps our blood but the place of our feelings and our will. The Holy Spirit transforms our old sin nature into the new spiritual nature, freeing us not only from the penalty of sin (forgiveness) but the power of sin (giving us new life).
As we trust Jesus more and more, we cooperate with this process of sanctification - of being made holy in the love of Christ. Our motivation changes. We want to live to please our Savior and King, not just to have a comfortable life. Our freedom changes. The chains of old addictions and habits are broken and we walk in a new freedom to live life as God intends it to be.
When a chef puts the ingredients together to make bread she includes yeast, and sets the bread aside for a time to allow it to rise. The yeast has been introduced to the dough, but needs time to work its effect. Then the dough is baked and becomes something far more delicious than the individual ingredients.
Just so, when the Holy Spirit begins this work of transformation, we need time for it to have its effect in our lives. The beautiful person we are becoming is already in there. The soul has been regenerated. But it has to work itself out into our living. Over time, we become beautiful, loving new people in Christ. The transformation is sometimes as stunning as the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly. Murderous drug dealers have become not only productive citizens but even preachers of the Gospel (Google Nicky Cruz).
The Apostle Paul describes this amazing transformation in Galatians, chapter 5, verses 19-24:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The works of the flesh that came from our old sin nature become the fruit of the Spirit in our regenerated new, spiritual nature. It becomes natural for us to love, and joy, peace, patience and the rest follow naturally from that transformation of our heart in the holy love of God. It's not that we try harder to love others. Rather, His love loves others through us. His love so infects and affects our lives that love becomes the default of our heart. This is the deep transformation that God seeks to make in us. Behavior modification by trying harder is religion. Relationship with Jesus changes who we are, and our behavior changes because our nature has changed.
The single most important thing any of us can do to make the new year a year of joyful transformation is not to make new year's resolutions that fail by February. Rather the deepest thing we can do is consecrate our lives fully to Jesus Christ and both welcome and cooperate with the transforming, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Then we can affirm what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said in his speech in New York City on September 12, 1962:
"Lord, we ain't what we oughta be. We ain't what we want to be. We ain't what we gonna be. But thank God, we ain't what we was."
I pray 2025 is a year of growth and transformation in Christ for myself, and for all of you who read this. To God be the glory!