BIBLE BULLETS – 28

2 Corinthians 5:17

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus’ sacrificial death didn’t just purchase fire insurance for His wayward creatures. He didn’t suffer just to keep us out of Hell, but to prepare us for Heaven. Jesus died because He loved us and wanted to transform us, to renew us, to restore us.

At the moment of our salvation, “we were buried with him … and raised from the dead … to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

Jesus doesn’t just make good men better. He makes dead men alive! We “were dead in your trespasses and sins … but God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1, 4–5).

“He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5–7). Salvation brings “regeneration and renewal.”

Adam and Eve were “created … in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) and walked hand-in-hand with the Living God. When we are “born again” (John 3:3, 7; 1 Peter 1:23), our relationship to God is restored. We become “a new creation” … “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Jeremiah’s poetry is powerful and true! “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23, NLT).

Like the nasty caterpillar is miraculously transformed into a beautiful butterfly, Jesus wants to transform us! Daily, our Savior “makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT).

Let’s make it our aim to be more like Jesus every day!

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).