When Paul says in 2
Corinthians 5:17 that we are ‘new creatures’ what did he mean? The issue turns
around the meaning of the word ‘new’. The Greek word used here (and in many
other places in the New Testament) is ‘kainos’.
(There are other Greek words translated by the English ‘new’ and all have
slightly different meanings.)
Kainos has
a sense that something did in fact pre-exist. So, for example, when Matthew
talks about Jesus being buried in a ‘new tomb’ (27:60) this wasn’t a reference
to a tomb that hadn’t existed previously, let alone a tomb that had never
existed as a concept before – this was a tomb that Jospeh had had prepared for
himself some time previously and was now given over to Jesus’ body. There are
many other examples of kainos being
used in the same way in the NT and also in the Greek version of the OT. (One
key use of kainos in the Greek OT is
when it used of the ‘new covenant’ in Jeremiah 31:31. This was not to be a
brand new, never before existed covenant with Israel, but a renewal of the
ancient covenant first made with Abraham.)
So when Paul talks about us
being ‘new creatures’ he is not saying that we have somehow become brand new
creatures, something that hadn’t existed before, but that our existing being
has been renewed. We remain human beings and a part of God’s created order. Now
we certainly are in a different relationship with God; we are in-dwelt by the
Spirit; we are cleansed, forgiven and restored; we are even in a better place
than Adam even enjoyed. But we are still the same human beings we always were,
having the same DNA, the same flesh (in biological terms) and blood that we had
before our renewal. And God still sees all he made – and re-made – and says ‘it
is very good’.
