<p>5:17 <i>Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation</i>- The context is full of Paul's allusions to his Damascus road conversion, when he did indeed know Christ after the flesh (:16). Paul is surely saying that he was in a sense everyman there; what happened to him can happen to &quot;any man&quot;. The emphasis is therefore to be placed on the word &quot;any&quot;. Paul really is our pattern.</p><p>F.F. Bruce has observed: &quot;Something of Paul's native impetuousness is apparent in his epistolary style... time and again Paul starts a sentence that never reaches a grammatical end, for before he is well launched on it a new thought strikes him and he turns aside to deal with that&quot; (<i>Paul: Apostle Of The Free Spirit</i>, Exeter: 1980, p. 456). This style is exemplified here in 2 Cor. 5:17. The Greek text here is a sentence in which there are no verbs: &ldquo;If anyone in Christ- new creation&rdquo;. It is as if the thrill of it leads him to just blurt it out.&nbsp; And observe that this was to be found in a man of extraordinary culture and intellectual ability. By perceiving this tension, the passion behind his style is thereby accentuated the more. Likewise consider how in Galatians Paul uses so many negatives, as if his passion and almost rage at the false teachers is coming out. See on Gal. 1:1.</p><p>The idea of a &quot;new creation&quot; is using a technical term known in Judaism for the conversion of a person from idolatry to Judaism and monotheism. Rabbi Eliezer apparently wrote that &quot;He who converts a man to the true religion is the same as if he had created him&quot;. So seeing that Paul was the converter of the Corinthians, his description of them as a new creation may be a reminder of their debt to him.</p><p>God is seeking to work a new creation in the experience of men and women. He has done this for us in Christ, and yet the reality of it is still dependent upon whether we will allow ourselves to put on the new man after the image of God, whether we will become born again after His image and likeness (Eph. 4:23,24). &quot;A new creation&quot; is very much the language of Rev. 21:5 concerning the creation of new things on the ruins of the old, at Christ's return. Yet this dramatic change must occur within the believer as a result of being in Christ in this life, before he can share in the wonders of that future age.</p><p>The Greek of 2 Cor. 5:17 is tellingly ambiguous; the sense can be: &quot;If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature&quot;, or, &quot;If any man be in Christ, let him be a new creature&quot;. The fact of becoming in Christ through baptism means that we are new creations potentially, and therefore must work towards being new creations. We must go on further than just being baptized into Christ.</p><p><i>The old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new- </i>As a new born baby sees a chair, a table, a brother or sister, for the very first time, so do we after baptism. It is so hard for us to appreciate the newness of everything to a baby or small child. &quot;All things are become new&quot; in our attitude of mind after baptism. Yet we live in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), as if this process of birth is ongoing throughout our spiritual lives. After baptism, therefore, we set out on a life in which we&nbsp; should be gazing, in wide eyed wonder, at new spiritual concepts and realities. How patient we should be with others who are in this position. &quot;Old things are passed away&quot; at baptism, just as the old world order will &quot;pass away&quot; at the Lord's return (Rev. 21:5). The dramatic change that will come upon this planet in the Kingdom should therefore be paralleled in our new spiritual vistas after baptism, and throughout the process of being re-born and becoming a new creation. The contemporary Jewish writings and the Apocrypha use the term &quot;new creation&quot; to describe the situation which would be brought about at the last day (1 Enoch 72:1; 2 Apoc. Baruch 32:6). Further exemplification is presented in Paul Barnett, <i>The Second Epistle to the Corinthians</i> (Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1997) p. 297. Yet Paul applies what could be called 'future Kingdom language' to our status in Christ right now.</p>