2Corinthians 5:17-18 (Amplified) tells us, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold, the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
The new creation family of God has spent more time being sin conscious, instead of righteousness consciousness. We've been constantly reminded of who we were, rather than who we now are in Christ Jesus. Because of this, we've never truly entered into what God, through Jesus, has created us to be. The world and man's carnal mind have focused so much on the sin, that we've failed to even see the new creation man. Satan has always tried keeping our focus off the new creation identity, leading us to believe it's for after we die and go to Heaven.
We've always heard sermons about "Going to Heaven someday," and how "This life of suffering will be worth it someday." The Church has been content with accepting this "as the way things are," and has never pressed into the newness of who we've now become, through Jesus. We've dedicated our entire Christian walk to trying not to sin and accepting whatever life has to offer us, this side of Heaven. Very few have come to the Truth of what the Father has done in and for us, in this earthly body. The return of the loss Adam faced in the Garden, has now been restored completely, through the Last Adam (Jesus).
Romans 6:11 (Amplified) tells us, "Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus." We hardly ever see ourselves as being in "unbroken fellowship" with the Father. We've somehow believed that God was more aware of our failures, than He is of our efforts in "getting it right." Ever baby fails time and again, as they grow into maturity. Even as we, who were babies in Christ, will make mistakes and fail as we "grow from faith to faith."
Learning to walk in "unbroken fellowship" with the Father, requires understanding His Grace and Love for us, even as we grow. Many have stopped growing altogether and have decided that it must be God's will for us to never reach maturity in Him. Others are so consumed and distracted by the things of life, that they are content to simply "go to Heaven when they die." Man has decided what are the bare necessities for going to Heaven and only do the things they believe are required to get there.
We've been willing to take the word of others, about what God's will and grace are. We then, walk in their relationship, instead of forming our own "unbroken" relationship with the Father. I don't want a secondhand relationship with Him, but one that is intimate with Him. In Philippians 3:10 (Amplified) Paul says, "For my determined purpose is, that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly); and that I may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection (which is exerts over believers)."
Paul wasn't simply thinking about "going to Heaven when he died" or about meeting the minimal requirements for going to Heaven. Paul wanted to know what Jesus had done and he wished to know Jesus in a manner that only someone seeking Him, could know. As a new creation man, I want to know my Creator in an intimate relationship. I want to know my own Heavenly Father, in the way Jesus did. In Colossians 1:9-11(Amplified, we find a prayer that I not only receive as Paul prayed it, but one that I pray daily. Thus, he says, "For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, (your love and faith, goodness, power, wisdom) have not ceased to pray and make (special request for you) (asking) that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom (in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things. That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God (with fuller and deeper, and clear insight, acquaintance and recognition) (We pray) that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory (to exercise) every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy."
The Holy Spirit inspired to write the above prayer and it's for all who will receive of it, according to faith in the Father. I've found that there are many in the Body of Christ, who are thirsting after a closer knowledge about the Father and to know the Father Himself more deeply. Paul goes on in Colossians 1:22-23 (Amplified) saying, "Yet now has Christ (the Messiah) reconciled (you to God) in the Body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His (the Father's) Presence. (And this He will do) providing that you continue to stay with and in the faith (in Christ) well grounded and settled and steadfast, not shifting of moving away from the hope (which rests on and is inspired by) the glad tidings (the Gospel) which you heard and which has been preached (as being designed for and offered without restrictions) to every person under Heaven, and of which (Gospel) I, Paul, became a minister."
This revelation that Jesus gave to Paul, isn't in a Parable or any other Words Jesus preached during His earthly ministry. Jesus couldn't reveal the entire content of His finished work, to the people. The above mystery was still hidden from the world and the evil one, when Jesus was on earth. It was only after His ascension and completion of the new covenant through His Blood, that Jesus could reveal it to the world. Paul was the only recipient of this revelation and was commissioned to take this Gospel into all the world, both to the Jews and the Gentiles.
We can learn who and what the new creation people are, in the Epistles. There has been so much misunderstanding of the new creation, because men have failed to distinguish between what is said in the Gospels and the Epistles. The Synopsis (the Gospels) are actually Old Testament books, written to the Old Testament people. The new covenant was was ratified only after Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. We are not under the Law, but are new creatures under grace. We're not dead men under sin and death, but are new creation people under the Law of the Spirit of Life, in Christ Jesus. Colossians 1:26 (Amplified) tells us, "The Mystery of which was hidden for ages and generations (from angels and men), but is now revealed to His holy people (the saints)."
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