New Creatures in an Old World (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
Introduction
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, "The greatest form of despair is not being who you are." In our modern times, there is a crisis of the self—people who don't know who they are or whose they are. This crisis is intensified in 2026 America, where people have become identified with their worst moments, strongest opinions, therapeutic categories, or political tribes. Into this context, God's word wonderfully interrupts our contemporary thinking with profound truth: "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation." This isn't a label we derive for ourselves, but something God has done for us. The same power that created the universe is the power God uses to create a new heart within us, transforming us completely. We should see ourselves undergoing metamorphosis like a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly from its chrysalis.
New Creatures Reorient
When we become new creatures in Christ, we undergo a complete reorientation in how we view everything, particularly how we see other people. Paul tells us "we regard no one according to the flesh.” This means we no longer see people through the old worldly categories and paradigms apart from Christ's redemptive work. This doesn't mean rejecting the physical body (Christians aren't Platonists), but rather abandoning the old way of perceiving reality apart from God. Just as people once evaluated Jesus with fleshly categories. They might see him as a revolutionary, mystic, or drunkard. We are reminded that we, too, can label people incorrectly and dismiss them. But when we're in Christ, we're mystically united to Him in body and soul, becoming entirely new and thus totally reoriented to the world.
This reorientation doesn't come easily. Our new life is in the context of spiritual warfare. We are new creations, but we still live in the old world. As Paul writes in Galatians, the desires of the flesh war against the Spirit, working to sabotage our new creatureliness and keep us from doing the things we want to do as new creatures. The Holy Spirit must work this transformation in us; it's not a simple three-step program. This is why we need one another. We are new creatures who cannot live in isolation. God created us for community, and we are members of one another, like parts of a body that cannot function independently. The familial language Scripture uses, which is brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers in the faith, is itself part of our reorientation. We need to continually be reminded of the spiritual bonds that transcend worldly categories.
New Creatures Reconcile
God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. He does not count our trespasses against us. The joy is that we have the ministry of reconciliation. In a world committed to polarization, labeling, and discarding people for their worst moments, reconciliation is a great act of rebellion and resistance. Because we know that none of our sins, which are past, present, or future, can or will stand against us before God. We are freed to reconcile with whomever God puts on our hearts. We can own our part in conflicts and make things right with others without fear of condemnation.
The aim of new creatures should be restoration and reconciliation. While reconciliation takes two people and isn't always possible, making it our aim changes us. When we pursue reconciliation, something new emerges—not just a return to how things were before, but an entirely new relationship. This mirrors what happened between God and us: after the Fall and redemption, our relationship with God became even better than it was in the Garden. When churches and families practice reconciliation, healing occurs, and through that healing, new things emerge that have never existed before. Even when reconciliation isn't achieved, the peace that passes understanding floods in when we've genuinely aimed for it. This is allowing us to rest knowing we've done what we could.
Conclusion
Friends, you do not live for your identity, but you live from it. Your identity is something God has placed on you and called you to, both individually and collectively. We are new creatures living in an old world, and as Romans tells us, we groan with the pains of childbirth, awaiting the day when Jesus returns. Our groaning, our reorientation, and our reconciliation are all testimonies that something different has come on the scene in history: Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh. He has interrupted the way of the world, the devil, and sin.
The great antidote to the despair of not knowing who you are is the gospel. Jesus has reconciled you to Himself and does not count your trespasses against you. Though the world will count everything you do wrong against you, God does not. You are new, you are free, and while you're at war in this world as a new creature in an old world, old things have passed away and no longer rule over you. They may impact and affect you, but they're not the final word. New is what is final. Reconciliation with God is final. Your identity is not found in your addiction, your sin, or the labels the world wants to place on you—it's found in Christ. All things have become new in your heart, and a great day is coming when the heavens and the earth will all be made new as well.