2 Cor 5:17, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”.
The grammatical construction of the sentence is Simple Present. Simple present is used for habits, routines, and facts (e.g., “The sun rises in the east”, “I drink coffee”). These are facts and these are things that happen everyday, for example.
It is not Present Perfect, which is the tense in modern Bibles. Present perfect is used for actions completed recently or experiences with current relevance (e.g., “I have finished my project”). The NKJV says, “…old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”, for example.
The difference is this. The reference point for this verse is not the day of your salvation. Rather, it is the current day. In other words, “in Christ” is your current condition today. Therefore, all things before today are passed away, and all things today are become new. Let’s explain.
The day you were saved you were baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. You were put into Christ. That happened and it only happens once. There is never an occurrence where a man is in Christ, then out of Christ, and then back into Christ again. And it is not an ongoing process. It happened.
From then till now, it’s a fact that you are “in Christ”. If any man be in Christ is a current fact. People are either “in Christ” or “in Adam”. That’s it. If you are still in Adam, you can trust Christ today and you will be “in Christ”.
You are a new creature. And if you are “in Christ”, you ARE a new creature. You are not what you were when Christ saved you.
For example, we know of Rahab the harlot. By faith Rahab perished not with the people of Jericho when she hid the spies. When she left Jericho, she married Salmon. Since then she is known as Rahab the wife of Salmon, the mother of Boaz. She was no longer the harlot.
I believe that Boaz was not afraid to marry Ruth because he knew what God had done for his mother. What a fine son she had. What a legacy she left.
You have to always remind yourself, when you think about your past that you are not that person you were back then. You are a new creature.
I’m reminded of car restoration. A fellow buys any old piece of junk because he knows he can fix it. Nothing is impossible with God. And after he’s finished, there’s no way to see how horrible it looked when he bought it. The history of the vehicle is erased. Leave your past in the past. You are revived. You’re new.
Old things are passed away. This is a present fact. So, not only are the old things before you were saved passed away, but everything up until now is, too. This is important because many of us took a detour into sin after we were saved. But that sin is passed away now. Because of 2 Cor 5:17 and 1 Jn 1:9 you can move on even from sins you committed after you were saved.
Take Paul for example. He disobeyed the Holy Spirit and went to Jerusalem. But after he got there, his disobedience was in the past. Therefore, God was able to use him to write his prison epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And in Rome he wrote 2 Timothy and Hebrews.
As the progress of your sanctification continues, everything behind you is passed. Paul wrote, Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before…
All things are become new. This is great. Everything that is new about you now is who you are now. You are not what you were. This work of sanctification is a process. It’s not like getting healed; an instant change. God doesn’t rush it. There is so much the restorer has to do. He works on you continuously.
During the restoration, you find that you have a new heart, a new spirit, a new attitude, a new speech, new thoughts, new motives, new desires, new friends, a new church, etc. All things are become new.
One day we finally get a glorified body, but not until the rapture. And that body won’t need maintenance or restoration. But until then God will be working on us.
When people see a restored vehicle they marvel at it’s beauty, but more so they marvel at the person who did the restoration. Likewise, when people see the work God is doing in your life, they will glorify God. Our new lives bring glory to God.
Consider what God did in the life of Onesimus. He went from an unprofitable servant to a servant profitable to Paul and to Philemon. Glory to God.
Conclusion: Jesus pays the same price for all the “cars” that he buys. He doesn’t pay more for the “good looking” cars. He has more work to do with the junkers. But he can fix all of us up and make us look like new.