What does Paul mean when he writes about being “in Christ” and someone being a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17)?

Today Bible Study:

What does Paul mean when he writes about being “in Christ” and someone being a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17)?

Paul uses the term “in Christ” when he writes about various aspects of our relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. These two words comprise a brief but profound statement of the inexhaustible significance of the believer’s redemption (salvation), which includes the following:

1. The believer’s security in Christ, who bore in His body God’s judgment against sin.

2. The believer’s acceptance in (through) Christ with whom God alone is well pleased.

3. The believer’s future assurance in Him who is the resurrection to eternal life and the sole guarantor of the believer’s inheritance in heaven.

4. The believer’s participation in the divine nature of Christ, the everlasting Word (2 Pet. 1:4).

All of the changes that Christ brings to the believer’s life result in a state that can be rightly called “a new creation.” The terms describe something created at a qualitatively new level of excellence. They parallel other biblical concepts like regeneration and new birth (John 3:3; Eph. 2:1–3; Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:23; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 5:4). The expression includes the Christian’s forgiveness of sins paid for in Christ’s substitutionary death (Gal. 6:15; Eph. 4:24).