Am I the new creation or the world?

- March 30, 2015

Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel. From Givat Mordechai synagogue wall in Jerusalem. Top row, right to left: Reuben, Judah, Dan, Asher Middle: Simeon, Issachar, Naphtali, Joseph Bottom: Levi, Zebulun, Gad, Benjamin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“When Jesus says to the disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’ This is Matthew 19:28. The ESV translation ‘new world’ is more accurately translated in the NIV as the ‘renewal of all things.’

Although I think a more precise translation would be ‘the regeneration of all things.’ Also, in 2 Cor 5:17, ‘Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.’ But here’s the NIV translation… ‘Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.’ Literally, the Greek reads ‘Behold, has emerged the new.’ It seems that the better rendering is the NIV, that ‘if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has passed away, behold the new has come.’

“A lot of us growing up with the older translation think of the new creation as me. ‘I am the new creation.’ But here again, isn’t that our tendency? To individualize and personalize the work of the Holy Spirit before we see how the Holy Spirit actually is making a new world, not just a new ‘me’ but a new world, speaking a new world into existence. ”