2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV Strong's)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Tag; In Christ Means Righteousness In Us.
When we are justified by faith, something happens to our nature. Our sins are forgiven, yes, but our sin nature is killed and left in a powerless position. Even though the penalty for sin is paid, the power of sin is diminished but not removed. As Christ fills us and we submit in obedience by faith, Christ supplies us with the power to overcome sin in our lives. Note what one commentator states about “the new has come:”
(MacArthur NT) The perfect tense of the verb ginomai (have come) indicates a past act with continuing results in the present. God plants new desires, loves, inclinations, and truths in the redeemed, so that they live in the midst of the old creation with a new creation perspective (cf. Gal. 6:14). That perspective, as it is nourished and developed, helps believers gain victory in the battle against sin and conforms them to the image of Jesus Christ.
We are being transformed into the image of God. This is what Paul had told the Corinthians in the previous chapter:
2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV Strong's)
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
That “one degree of glory to another” is the work of being in Christ and Christ being in us. He is slowing giving us new tastes and new hungers that can only be found in a life that looks like Jesus. That is HIS work in our life. Our role and responsibility in HIS work is to walk, by faith, in Obedience to the truth He gives us.
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