“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Out with the old and in with the new. Today’s scripture verse comes from a chapter labeled “The Ministry of Reconciliation.” In this chapter, Paul tells the Corinthians that the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus has changed everything.

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” – 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

This is the philosophy of being born of the new creation. Christ Jesus died for our sins and provided complete reconciliation for the wrongs we have committed. Being in Christ, means accepting all that Jesus has done and knowing that Jesus was the only one who can do this for us. In this, we are made a new creation. “The old has gone, [and] the new is here!” We are no longer slaves to the sins of our past. Jesus has washed these stains away. So with the start of this New Year, also realize the new creation that God has started in you. Take on the saving faith in Christ, and join Jesus in His death – the death to all sin in your life. And exchange this death, as Jesus did, for the life that God has promised. In Him we are saved. In Him we are made new. In Him we are raised into the class of royal priesthood. And in Him, we need not look backward to what we were – we only need to focus on Jesus in our lives and realize what we can become.