“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17)
This is a lot to digest and you may be a little confused. I hope to eliminate any confusion in this section. Let’s do a short recap:
1) We are all born with a sin nature.
2) God will not accept us in this condition.
3) The penalty for our sins must be paid.
4) We cannot pay the penalty, other than spend an eternity in hell.
5) God sent His Son to pay the penalty for us.
6) We appropriate this gift (New Life), when we believe and trust in His Word.
To believe and trust is to have faith. The Bible tells us that, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). This is a very important verse to remember.
Before The New Testament was written, the early church preached Christ’s teachings. This means that people could only hear it. Today, we can hear it and read it.
The Word of Christ
So, what is the Word of Christ? Well, the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) record the words of Jesus in great detail. Here is a verse that relates to salvation, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)
The words “believe” and “believeth” are used three times in this verse and they are all translated from the Greek word “pisteuo”. If the Bible is the word of God, then we are compelled to take it as absolute truth. If not, we are calling God a liar. If we believe (trust) it as God’s truth, then He says that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us based on our taking God at His Word.
The word “imputed” means to reckon or credit something to another’s account. It’s something like a bookkeeping entry. God is simply saying that if you believe and trust what He says to be absolute truth, then Christ’s suffering on the cross pays the penalty for your sins and His righteousness is credited to you. When this happens, God no longer sees a rebellious sinner but someone with a brand new nature that is in Christ.
Just as Adam used his free will to disbelieve what God said was true, you can use your free will now to believe what God says in the Bible is true.
“But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead…” (Romans 4:24)
“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)
Our faith gives us a new nature from above and therefore, we have access to God because He has judged us to be holy in His Son. You’re almost finished.