"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
The Bible is telling us that if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. What does that mean?
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
We no longer live for our desires. We died with the desires of flesh, with the desires of the world, and are made alive in the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
We have to know and understand that there are two natures: the flesh and the Spirit. And these two are contrary to one another.
"For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want." (Galatians 5:17 NIV)
If we are in the flesh, we cannot do what the Spirit wants to do, and if we are in the Spirit, we cannot do what the flesh wants. They are a contrast with one another. And it's an everyday commitment and decision that you must do, to live according to the spirit.
And indeed, many would say that being a Christian is boring. We can't do "this and that". And I think it's because we no longer find satisfaction with those things. It's because we have discovered that those things that we once found satisfaction from, those we once held like treasures, are nothing compared to the treasure that we have found in Christ. We no longer desire those things, because being in Christ is more than enough for us. What we now desire is to please the Lord who gave us eternal life.
We go back to 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." (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
We are not told to reduce or decrease the worldlines/fleshly desires within us. Rather, we are to completely remove it from us and we are to live as a new creation in the Spirit. Many would blame "the old self" for the misdeeds that they commit everyday. And that is why it is said that "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Our old self was already dead. It died in the cross with Christ.
As followers of Christ, we no longer live in self but in Christ. We are made new by the Holy Spirit that is in us through Jesus Christ. We are a single individual. We cannot be a new being in Christ but has a separate being that is in still in the world. We are made new, dead to sin, and alive in Christ.
As I end this, let me share something I read in the book I am reading.
In the book Embraced by the Cross by LE Maxwell, it was said that Emperor William refused a request for an audience prepared by a German-American. The Emperor declared that Germans born in Germany but naturalized in America became Americans: "I know know Americans; I know Germans, but German-Americans I do not know."
In the same manner, Maxwell explained the new citizenship that we have in Christ.
"I was once bound in Adam. I am now freed in Christ. The Cross cut me off, killed me outright to the old citizenship and life. I am no Adam-Christ believer. Such a position will get me no audience with my King, bring me no deliverance from the bondage of the old man. Let me cease at once any such unholy duplicity. Let me declare that I am Christ's and His alone. Let me yield fully unto him as one "dead indeed to sin, but alive to Christ Jesus our Lord."
"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."(Joshua 15:24 NIV)
We can be renewed by Christ. But the decision is ours if we will let Him so. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
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