II Cor. 5:17 ... "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
In Rom. 3:1 Paul asks, "What advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?" In the next verse he answers, "Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God." There were great blessings involved in being a Jew. They were the people God chose to be His own possession; through them God made preparations to send the world a Redeemer; and for centuries God had revealed His will through them by inspired oracles. Paul's question may be taken and pointed toward another object more relevant to our modern situation: "What advantage has the Christian? Or what is the benefit of baptism?" We do not find the question phrased in these words anywhere in the New Testament. But if it were, there is little doubt the statement we find in II Cor. 5:17 would be its answer.
To be in Christ is a Biblical phrase that means to be a Christian. Sometimes it is expressed as "in the Lord," since in New Testament vocabulary the Lord is Christ. As a person entered into a covenant with God as a Jew by circumcision, a person now becomes a Christian by being "baptized into Jesus Christ," (Rom. 6:3). With this initial act of obedience in response to faith, the advantages of being a Christian immediately begin.
The first advantage is that the person becomes a "new creature." In Tit. 3:5 baptism is called "the washing of regeneration," that is, it is an act of spiritual cleansing by which a new creation is brought forth. If there is such a thing as a modern day miracle, it is the thing that occurs when a sinner is converted into a Christian. It was a miracle when God in the beginning created a man from earthly elements and then endowed him with a soul after God's own Image. Is it any the less a miracle when God today regenerates the sin-wasted soul of a person and brings forth a soul which is again pure and blameless? It is something only God can do, for creation requires a power that lies entirely within the province of God.
The second advantage obtained when a person becomes a new creature in Christ, (a Christian), is that "old things (are) passed away." Gone are the wretched conditions that prevailed when sin ruled over the individual's life. These conditions are described in Ephesians 2. First, (v.3), "we all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Second, (v.12), "You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." The former life of enslavement to lust, of enmity toward God, of alienation from divine favor, and of bleak hopelessness is gone.
With the dismissal of this terrible state of life comes the third advantage of being a Christian, which is expressed in the proclamation, "Behold! New things have come." As one enters into Christ, life takes on a whole new dimension. It says in Rom. 6:4 that, as a person comes forth from baptism, he should "walk in newness of life." First, he becomes the son of a new Father, who is God, (Jno. 20:17). Before, his father was his earthly, biological father. But now he is the son of the Creator of the universe and the omnipotent Ruler over all. Second, the Christian gains citizenship in a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God, (Col. 1:13). This is a kingdom that is eternal and will survive the destruction of the earth at the end of time. And third, the Christian receives a new hope, the hope that when this life is over and he must leave this world, he will be given eternal life in heaven, (Jno. 14:1-3).
