2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Christ’s death for sin changes the way we regard others. Instead of looking at each person as a mere human being, he must view those who are in Christ as something entirely different. Those who are “in Christ” are those who have faith in Him, credited with Christ’s righteous life, and their sin forgiven by Christ’s death in their place. Such people are new creations. Having been transformed into ‘someone’ they were not before. Their identity has changed from being the fallen version of themselves to being associated with the righteousness of Christ.
In fact, the old version of a Christian, who they were before they were “in Christ,” is not recoverable. The old is gone, Paul writes. The new has come. All the old dreams and ideas and agendas and purposes have ceased to exist and have been replaced by Christ’s ideas and agendas and purposes in an entirely new creature.
The old way of humanity is also gone. The old way of the law is also gone. Christ is the long-promised new Covenant that makes it possible for men and women to be made new once and for all, and for eternity, with no possibility of returning to the old.