What does it mean that if you are in Christ you are a new creation?
Being in Christ means a new creation: old things have passed away, and all things become new. The evidence of salvation is a total change in lifestyle. Former habits and associations change, as illustrated by a couple who discarded their alcohol and found a new circle of friends.
Les teaches that the new creation is marked by a total change in lifestyle. When a person is in Christ, old things pass away and all things become new. He illustrates this with an insurance executive and his wife Patty who drove about 150 miles each Saturday for a home Bible study. After six or seven months, the man told Les that since knowing the Lord, many things had changed: they had kept the refrigerator full of beer and the wet bar stocked, but Patty said it did not fit, so they poured it all out and flushed it away. Eventually their old drinking friends disappeared and they had a whole new circle of friends. Les says that is exactly how it works.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
More Questions
Why does a person in Christ become a new creation?
Anyone in Christ is a new creation; old things pass away and all things become new because of the salvation experience and what God has done for us.
Why is 'new creation' better than 'new creature' in 2 Corinthians 5:17?
The word 'creation' in 'new creation' is a better translation than 'creature' because our salvation is a work of creation—a work of the power of God.