Redemption · Bible Study

What Does It Mean to Be a New Creation in Christ?

Your body came up out of that water exactly as it went in. Something else did not.

By Jim Cookman · Elder, Greater Phoenix Church of God

Adapted from the sermon “The New You” · Published August 2026 · 7 min read

If you have ever come up out of the baptism water and quietly wondered why you did not feel like a different person, this is the answer you were looking for.

The moment nobody explains well enough

Most people describe baptism as a symbol. It is that. It is also more than that.

Jim Cookman puts it plainly: when you go down into that water, you are dying with Christ Jesus. The old you goes under. The old man, the old woman, is buried. And when you come up, you come up as a new person.

Paul says it exactly this way:

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:4

Notice the last phrase. Not feel newness of life. Walk in it. Paul assumes something real happened that you can now live out of.

Then he says something that sounds almost too big:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

All things. That is the phrase that trips people up. Because you know for a fact that all things did not become new.

The observation test

Here is the simplest way to know what Paul is talking about, and it does not require a single commentary.

Go down into the water carrying twenty extra pounds and you will come up carrying twenty extra pounds. Go down with a bad knee and you will limp out of the same water you limped into. Go down with a scar and the scar comes with you.

Your body is not what was made new. You can verify that with your own eyes.

So when Paul writes that all things have become new, he is not describing your flesh. Your flesh is going to wear out. Nobody has made it through this life yet. Scripture is honest about that.

What actually became new

Scripture describes you as a three-part being. Paul writes it out directly:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Spirit. Soul. Body.

The spirit is the part God gave you at the very beginning. When God formed man from the dust, He breathed into him, and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). That breath was not only air. Job says it this way:

“But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.”

Job 32:8

That is the part of you that reasons, plans, chooses, and understands. It is the part no animal has. And it is the part that was cleansed the day you came up out of the water.

James confirms how central it is:

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

James 2:26

The body without the spirit is a corpse. The spirit is what makes you a living being. And that is precisely the part God renewed.

The new man was created a specific way

Paul does not leave the new man vague. He tells you what it was made out of:

“and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4:24

True righteousness. True holiness. Not righteousness you worked up. Righteousness that was created in you, according to God, at your new birth.

This is the part most believers never fully receive. You can spend thirty years in church still praying like a beggar at the door, still asking God how He could possibly use someone as broken as you.

He does not look at you that way.

“For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

When Samuel went to anoint Israel’s next king, he saw Jesse’s oldest son Eliab, tall and impressive, and assumed the choice was obvious. God said no. Seven sons passed in front of Samuel before David was even called in from the field. God was not evaluating stature. He was looking inside.

He is doing the same thing when He looks at you.

So why do you still sin?

This is the honest question, and it deserves an honest answer.

Your spirit was made new. Your flesh was not. That is why John can write that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8) and also write that whoever has been born of God does not sin (1 John 3:9) in the same letter without contradicting himself. He is describing two different parts of you.

The Christian life, then, is not you manufacturing a new person. It is you getting the flesh out of the way so that the new person God already created can live.

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”

John 6:63

Paul lived in that same tension and named it:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Galatians 2:20

You clean up the flesh. The drinking, the language, the habits, the appetites. That work is real and it matters. But it is not what saves you and it is not what makes you new. It is you bringing the outside into agreement with what God already did on the inside.

Why this changes your Tuesday

If you believe you are still the old person with a religious coat of paint, you will live like it. You will focus on what you lack. You will assume God is disappointed. You will hear every sermon as a list of things you failed at.

If you believe scripture, you will focus on who you already are.

That is not positive thinking. That is taking God at His word about what He did in you. And it is the difference between a discouraged believer and a believer who walks in newness of life the way Romans 6:4 says you should.

You are not an old broken thing God is tolerating. You are a new creation He made in true righteousness and holiness, and He is not going back on it.

Frequently asked questions

Next step

Hear the full message

Jim Cookman taught this message, “The New You,” at Greater Phoenix Church of God. Watch it in full, then come sit with us on a Saturday morning. You will not be singled out as a visitor.

Watch the full sermon

Plan your visit

Join us Saturday at 10:30 AM. Casual, all ages, all backgrounds.