New Creation

1. The Biblical Definition of “New Creation”

The clearest biblical definition of “new creation” is found in Paul’s words:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

The phrase “new creation” in Greek is kainē ktisis.

• Kainē (καινὴ) – “new” in the sense of new in kind or quality, not merely new in time. It speaks of something unprecedented, fresh, of a different order.
• Ktisis (κτίσις) – “creation,” something that has been created, a creature, or the act of creating.

So Paul is not saying that a believer is merely improved or reformed. He is saying that in Christ, a person becomes a different kind of being – a new order of humanity, spiritually reborn and reconstituted in union with Christ.

Other key New Testament terms help fill out this picture:

• “Born again” / “born from above” (John 3:3,7 – gennēthē anōthen): a new birth originating from God, not from human effort.
• “New man” (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10): the new self created according to God’s likeness.
• “Regeneration” (Titus 3:5 – palingenesia): literally “again-birth,” a new genesis, a new beginning of life.

The new creation is not just a new status before God; it is a new spiritual reality within the believer. The “old things” (our old identity in Adam, under sin, under Satan’s dominion, under the law’s condemnation) have passed away. “All things” – especially in the inner man – have become new.

This is positional (true the moment you are in Christ) and transformational (worked out progressively in your soul and body by the Holy Spirit).

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2. Old Testament Foundations of the New Creation

The Old Testament anticipates the new creation in several prophetic themes: a new heart, a new spirit, a new covenant, and even a new heavens and new earth.