2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

A new year is here, and there is one thing I know for sure – this fallen world we live in is a lot like a runaway car without brakes on its way to running off a cliff. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be caught sleeping in the passenger seat of that car!

Thankfully, Paul makes it very clear that Jesus provided a way of escape from the brokenness of the present world order. When he told the Corinthian church that “old things are passed away”, Paul uses the past tense to assure us that the certain end is already accomplished. Thankfully, Jesus has already paid the price for us to avoid riding off the cliff to disaster. It is a historical fact, already accomplished for those who are “in Christ”.

The finished work of Calvary purchased our redemption, and now it is up to us to apply it in our lives. What that means for those of us who are “in Christ” is that we no longer have to be in the death grip of the “old things”. All the darkness of our fallen world. All the lying and deceit. All the overt sensuality and immorality. All the damage and despair caused by enslavement to sin. This is all the old, outdated stuff that Jesus overcame by the cross. Just like the song says, “I’m no longer a slave to sin, I am a child of God”.

Now we, as His followers, are part of a “new creation”. When Paul proclaimed the good news that “all things become new”, he used the perfect tense of the Greek language indicating a past action with continuing results. In other words, there are ongoing effects of Jesus’ past action to save us. In the perfect tense, His past action is intended to continue to produce results; results that reflect the new creature we have become. New things like honesty, forgiveness, generosity, faithfulness, joy, peace, and compassion become part of our everyday lives. His process of making us into a new creation is ongoing and anchored in the historical truth of a resurrected Savior. That means that we, as His followers, are “becoming new” and looking more and more like His new creation all the time.

The start of this new year is a good time to ask if your life looks more like the old or the new. As a “new creature” in Jesus Christ, are you seeing the changes in your life that clearly reflect His new way of living? Let’s wake up to the fact that we don’t belong to the darkness of this fallen world. Instead, let us embrace the new dynamic that God desires to create in our lives. Live to make progress in the perfect tense of His finished work so this year will be a lot more “new” and a lot less “old”. I cannot think of a better New Year’s resolution to make!