Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;behold, all things are become new. (II Cor. 5:17)
Have we realized that resurrection life in Christ is not merely the result of a reversal of death? It is the result of tasting the fullness of death and conquering it, and of passing through death into NEWNESS OF LIFE.
The life that results is a different KIND OF LIFE than what originally died. It is life that has conquered death and can die no more. God has raised other people from the dead. But in each case death was reversed and they were brought back to the same life as before. Not so with Jesus Christ. When He emerged out of the tomb He ushered in a new KIND OF LIFE that had never before existed – life that is eternal and the product of victory over all.
A person who has, “eternal life,” is not a person who possesses the same life as before – only now his life is without an end. The term eternal life is translated from words that speak, not so much of an unending life in the sense of time, but they speak of a KIND OF LIFE that is timeless.
Eternal life in Christ is the kind of life that is timeless, incorruptible — and infinitely more. It is the life of Christ Himself. Thus, a new creature in Christ Jesus is actually a new kind of human being – redeemed humanity – a different kind of human being — because they are joined to the Lord.
God really has done a NEW THING. He has closed out the old Adam race and birthed a new race of human beings in Christ.
David DePra