Paul too preached that Jesus’ suffering as the Messiah changed his people’s lives: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (5:17a). But for Paul this change does not lead to a super-spirituality in terms of spiritual experience, but to the consequences summarized in 5:17b. Rather than still belonging to this world and its ways, all those in Christ are a “new creation,” which means that they have already participated in the passing away of the old age and the arrival of the new (lit., “new things”). The “new things” that have happened in Christ, however, are not private, spiritual experiences, but a new way of life that derives from the reorientation described in 5:15. Becoming a “new creation” does not refer to becoming a new kind of “super-spiritual” human being, but to becoming like Christ. The contours of the new creation are moral, not ecstatic.

Against the backdrop of 2:14–4:18, the “new creation” of a people who live for Christ by living for others is the beginning of the restoration of God’s people under the new covenant. This means that reconciliation with God through Christ (5:18–21) is the beginning of the eschatological redemption of the world, the inbreaking into this evil age of the “new creation” to come (cf. Isa. 43:18–19; 65:16b–23; 66:22–23). Indeed, in Isaiah 43:1–21 and 65:17–25 Israel’s restoration from exile is described with new creation language as part of the theme of Israel’s “second exodus” that is developed throughout Isaiah 40–66. Beale has therefore argued persuasively that “it is plausible to suggest that ‘reconciliation’ in Christ is Paul’s way of explaining that Isaiah’s promises of ‘restoration’ from the alienation of exile have begun to be fulfilled by the atonement and forgiveness of sins in Christ.”

This point is made abundantly clear by Paul’s allusion in v. 17b to Isa. 43:18f. (lxx): “Do not remember the former things, and do not discuss the old things. Behold I make new things” (cf. also Isa. 66:17), which is an exhortation for Israel to forget their past sin and judgment but to look to God’s work of restoration/new creation.

Paul too had experienced the reality of this new creation first-hand, having been forgiven by Christ on the road to Damascus. Hence, his equating being “in Christ” with participating in the “new creation” reflects his own experience of the fact that Christ’s death (5:14) inaugurates the eschatological new creation in the midst of the old (cf. 1:20). For Paul, the new covenant, made possible by Christ’s death, is the inauguration of the new creation.

Against its Old Testament backdrop, Paul’s affirmation that the new creation is being realized “in Christ” does not refer simply to a potential for the future. It also includes the life-transforming reality that has invaded this age, determining the lives of those who are now a part of it (5:14c–15; cf. Gal. 1:4). The new creation, like the kingdom of God, is already here, but not yet here in all its glory. Within the dawning of the new creation, the revelation of God’s glory among a restored people results in a life of growing obedience by the power of the Spirit, in contrast to Israel’s continuing hard-heartedness and the wickedness of the nations (cf. 2 Cor. 3:14–18; 4:3–4). As an outpost of the “new creation” in Christ under the new covenant, the Corinthians testify by their obedience and separation from evil that the Spirit is truly at work among them (cf. 1 Cor. 5:1–6:20; 2 Cor. 6:14–7:1).

By implication, one can legitimately argue that the personal transformation brought about by the Spirit in 3:18 is the evidence that one is part of the new creation spoken of in 5:17. Though the consummation of the new creation is still to come, the Spirit-wrought transformation pictured in 3:18 is the foundation of Paul’s assertion here that the death and resurrection of Christ have already inaugurated the eschatological “new creation.” Hence, whatever the “new things” are in 5:17, they must certainly include a new life of growing obedience to God brought about by the Spirit. As the “second Adam” reflecting the image of God, Christ brings his followers back to the glory associated with Adam before his fall into disobedience. Thus, for Paul, the real evidence of the glory of the new creation is not spiritual ecstasy (5:13), but moral transformation (5:17; cf. Eph. 2:10).