In Genesis 1:26-27 (Amplified) God said, "Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our Likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Corinthians 5:16_17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Many of us today, fail to see ourselves as being new creations of God, even though the above scripture tells us, "the old previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come." If we truly pondered this, then we would have realized the fullness of this Word. We were "dead in trespass and sin, without God and without covenant." The Amplified version says in Ephesians 2:12 that, "(Remember) that at that time you were separated (living apart) from Christ (excluded from all part in Him) utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the (Messianic) promise (with no knowledge of outright in God's agreements, His covenants). And you had no hope (no promise); You were in the world without God."
We needed to be created new in Christ Jesus, in order to become alive to God and to His covenant. Our spirit needed to be created new in His life, so that we could be alive to Him. Now, we are a new creation, just like it was in the first chapter of Genesis. We all believe that we were dead in sin and trespass, but we haven't grasped the full extent of what our new creation has made us to be. When the Holy Spirit spoke through Paul, saying, "Old things have passed away, and all things are made new," HE MEANT EXACTLY THAT.
We're not simply forgiven sinners, but are "new creatures altogether." In Christ Jesus, we've been created as new as the heavens and the earth were created new in the beginning. There has never been a people like us, existing in all of creation. We were created even differently, than Adam was in the beginning. Adam was created in God's Image, while we were created in God Himself. You might ask, "What's the difference?" The main difference is that we are no longer a separate entity, but now we're one in Him, in Jesus.
This makes us an entirely new creation, who is much different than the first one. Adam was a spirit man in a flesh and blood body, who was in touch with God. We aren't only a flesh and blood body in touch with God, but we've become His Body altogether. Christ is the Head and we are His Body. Paul says in Galatians 2:20 (Amplified), "I have been crucified with Christ (in Him I have share His crucifixion); It is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
We are different from the first creation and have truly become a new creation. The person we once were, no longer even exists in the new covenant. We were already dead, so how could we ever live for God? He first, needed to create life within us who were dead (all of us), in order to have a new creation. We've been taught that God still looks at us (Christians), like we are still sinners. This isn't true for this new creation family of God. God looks upon us, like He looks upon Jesus, because we are the Body of Christ.
This doesn't mean we can do whatever we wish and sin, because of grace, but we're to do like Paul instructs in Galatians 2:21 (Amplified), saying, "(Therefore, I do not treat God's gracious gift of minor importance and defeat its very purpose). I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through (observing the ritual of) the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) dies groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain (His death then was wholly superfluous)."
Most of us have tried being a new creation in the spirit, and then try justifying ourselves by the Law. This can never happen. The body that we had (including the spirit within us) was dead unto God and needed to be created brand new. Our body is now His Body and our spirit is ingrafted into His Spirit. We have become one with Him.
Jesus said in John 17:23-24 (Amplified), "I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know (definitely) recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them (even) as You have loved Me." If we are Christ's Body, then how could God not love us like He loves Jesus? Jesus was praying, just prior to going to the cross, in the above scripture. He was praying a future thing, in prayer to the Father. Jesus continued in Verse 24 praying, "Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me (as Your gift to Me) may be with Me where I Am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me (Your Love gift to Me); for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
We discover the answer to Jesus' prayer in Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified) which says, "And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)." The new creation is even lifted up and is superior to the first Adam, because he wasn't one in God, but one as like God (which was simply as separate spirit as God is). We are not a separate spirit like God, but are now one Spirit with and in God.
The new creation people never existed in all of creation before. The Holy Spirit said through Paul, in 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) saying, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
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