keener

part 1: Is God going to sue us?  Cattle on hills, This is the Day
part 2: Don't smoke, your body is the temple, I can't do all things, Baptized in fire,
part 3:P faith comes by hearing, binding and loosing, 2/3 gathered
part 4" Seek first,  scandalous faith, Who touched me?

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God will ALWAYS give you more than you can handle 

Christian, you are a NOT a 'new creation!

Christian, you are a NOT a 'new creation!' / Bonus: Dave's Top Ten list of "misundertaken" Scriptures

How many times have you heard it?:

               "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation"

Or worse, we often hear:
                                  "Christians are new creations"

And don't get me started on the King James Version:

                                           
                    "if any man be in Christ, he is a newcreature "  (:


From the black lagoon?



It's all based on misleading translation of the original Greek of 2 Cor 5:17 , which literally says:

ωστε ει τις εν χριστω καινη κτισις τα αρχαια παρηλθεν:

                  "If anyone is in Christ,
                 new creation!"



Of course the TNIV nailed it.....and of course it was banned:

              "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
                the new creation has come"
(The new 2011 NIV:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,the new creation has come:^[a]The old has gone, the new is here!  (footnote: Or Christ, that person is a new creation.)

How about:

      "Since (even) one person is  (already) in Christ, the  NEW CREATION has  (already) arrived"

That helps restore the thought.

The New Creation-- God's heavenly realm and  cosmic "kingdom come," which has already started coming-- is a bit bigger than me.

And it is NOT me...

 "New Creation" has a lot more to do with Revelation's "new heavens and new earth" in all its glory than this  individual little creature from the black lagoon getting saved.

Paul also never uses the noun “creation” (ktisis) to refer to an individual person (see Rom 1:2, 25; 8:19–22, 39), and the concept of a new creation appears prominently in Jewish apocalyptic texts that picture the new age as inaugurating something far more sweeping than individual transformation—a new heaven and a new earth. The translation “there is a new creation” would mean that the new creation does not merely involve the personal transformation of individuals but encompasses the eschatological act of recreating humans and nature in Christ. It would also include the new community, which has done away with the artificial barriers of circumcision and uncircumcision (Gal 6:15–16; see Eph 2:14–16) as part of this new creation.
(David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, The New American Commentary, 286-87)  link

Ralph Martin:

Paul is talking of a “new act of creation,” not an individual’s renovation as a proselyte or a forgiven sinner in the Day of Atonement service. There is even an ontological dimension to Paul’s thought.. suggesting that with Christ’s coming a new chapter in cosmic relations to God opened and reversed the catastrophic effect of Adam’s fall which began the old creation (Kümmel, 205). To conclude: en Christo, kaine ktisis in this context relates to the new eschatological situation which has emerged from Christ’s advent .
-Ralph P. Martin, 2 Corinthians, Word Biblical Commentary, 152)link

Sure, in a wonderful way, in microcosm, my status as a recreated truster of Jesus mirrors the New Creation.
But I'm just a little critter/creature.

Of  course, it might also be a case of BOTH/AND...

 I was glad to find this just now from Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics:

The apocalyptic scope of 2 Corinthians 5 was obscured by older translations that rendered the crucial phrase in verse 17 as “he is a new creation” (RSV) or — worse yet — “he is a new creature” (KJV). Such translations seriously distort Paul’s meaning by making it appear that he is describing only the personal transformation of the individual through conversion experience. The sentence in Greek, however, lacks both subject and verb; a very literal translation might treat the words “new creation” as an exclamatory interjection: “If anyone is in Christ — new creation!”

The NRSV has rectified matters by rendering the passage, “If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation.” Paul is not merely talking about an individual’s subjective experience of renewal through conversion; rather, for Paul, “creation” refers to the whole create order (Rom. 8:18–25). He is proclaiming the apocalyptic message that through the cross God has nullified the kosmos of sin and death and brought a new kosmos into being. That is why Paul can describe himself and his readers as those “on whom the ends of the ages has met” (1 Cor. 10:11). The old age is passing away (cf. 1 Cor. 7:31b), the new age has appeared in Christ, and the church stands at the juncture between them.  link, p. 20

The Wikipedia article on New Creation also makes room for both.

Vernard Eller, in his amazing  chapter 8  of "War and Peace" ("Noting The Absence of What Wasn't There"..read it here) helpfully bases his comments on the delightful translation of the NEB:

Becoming a Christian eschatologist does not mean being lifted out of this world into some  transcendent realm...Paul stated our idea rather precisely: "When anyone is united to Christ, there is a new world; the old order has gone, and a new order has already begin (2 Cor 5.17).  Obviously, Paul does not mean..that, at the moment one accepts Christ, he is transported from this world to another one...but..The old secular, flatlander interpretation is gone; and the new, true eschatological significance has already begun  (p. 200)

The NEB has  since been replaced with the REB , which reads:

                                "For anyone united to Christ, there is a new creation.."

Nice!  (and see helpful comments by John Howard Yoder here)

How about N.T. Wright, 43:30  mark to 47  min. mark here:


-

Of course, this is all  a classic case of misleading translation coupled with Verse-itis
How many know the verse under discussion starts with a "Therefore.."?
So we are called to discern the context and what the "therefore" is
                                                                                     there for.
Do check it out.
--

PS:  Note: this "new creation" principle carries over into a lesser-known, not on any bumper sticker, verse:

"Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything;
AA)" face=""verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;">             what counts is the new creation'  (Galatians 6:15, NIV)


Great translation score there. Some translations style the above as "what counts is A new creation"   Uh, no.


An intriguing parallel reminds us of what the New Creation life, here in the midst of the old creation,  is to be known by:




"Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything;
             The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."
                                                           (Galatians 5:6)

Related:

• Why Greek Matters (Part 2) – When Does the New Creation Begin? (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• NT Wright: explosive new creation
• Great Commission and New Creation Reloaded ...
• posts on NT Wright on "the new creation"
• “he is a new creation” or “there is a new creation?"

If this lil' ol' Bible study has messed up your day, how about nine more?

constitute a Top Ten list 
 of

"misundertaken" Scriptures:

• little evangelical kids singing R-rated lyrics in Sunday School: "and his banner over me is love"
• I am in sin if I "avoid the appearance of evil"
• Why Would Jesus Puke?: let's be hot AND cold, as Jesus wants
• "Temple Tantrums For All Nations"
• don't seek first the Kingdom
• The "Lord's Prayer" does NOT say "daily bread ...
• God will ALWAYS give you more than you can handle
•  of course Christians will be left behind
• "fear him who has authority to throw you into hell" : Who's "him"?
•  

Okay, I can't 
stop..let's make it a Top 16:

11)I assume you know that I can't do all things through Christ.

12)Don't get me started on Jeremiah 29:11..

or

     13) the individual Christian wearing spiritual armor

      or
               14)the "fruitS of the Spirit"
               
                    or

  15)Jesus being literally forsaken by God because
 "God can't look at us, he can                      only look at Jesus..."

                                              or 

                                                            16) "Christians are sinners, not saints"Guest?

Peter Popoff
'Letterman at Taco Bell
Coffee Shop Surprise?
Combined comments on above
Dinner
Quiz: Ch 4 Fee and Stuart
Exercise for EPIC
Dave Matthews 1
Apples and Oranges/ EPIC
Dave Matthews 2
Philemon discussion

• Seminal and significant events:  Prod Son, Dance Party, Temple Tantrum, L_____/
• Archippus, Humor and Witherington) 
•  worksheet

Moodle discussion:

• -Learning Style, EIS, C AND C, Dance Party, Amber, Grid