A new creation, our paradigm shift
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new creation. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! – 2 Corinthians 5:17
Romans 6:4 Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
Ephesians 4:22-24
22 Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.
23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.
24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.
The phrase “paradigm shift” is used frequently in modern colloquial English across many fields of endeavor. What does it mean, and what is its origin?
Thomas Kuhn, a twentieth-century physicist and philosopher of science (1922-1996), coined the term “paradigm shift” in his influential work titled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published in 1962. To understand the meaning of “paradigm shift,” it is necessary to know what a paradigm is.
Initially, a paradigm denoted a framework or model encompassing a collection of beliefs, assumptions, and practices that guide scientific inquiry and research within a particular discipline. It was a “conceptual framework” comprising the accepted theories and methodologies influencing scientific research and understanding.
A paradigm shift signifies a fundamental change in a scientific discipline’s underlying assumptions, concepts, and approaches. A new scientific paradigm or framework replaces the old. For example, Ptolemy’s astronomy gave way to Copernican astronomy. The physics of Einstein supplanted Newton’s physics.
Eventually, the term paradigm shift spread to social sciences and beyond. It became a buzzword in popular culture. It now refers to a revolutionary and dramatic change.
All children of the King have experienced a significant paradigm shift. Regrettably, few know this, and fewer still live it out.
2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
When we become children of the King, we are in Christ. This term is used 27 times in Paul’s writings. “This phrase, ‘in Christ’ can mean several things that are not mutually exclusive: that one belongs to Christ, that one lives in the sphere of Christ’s power, that one is united with Christ, or that one is part of the body of Christ, the believing community” (Garland). Practically speaking, being in Christ means having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ based upon our faith in Him and identification with His Death, Burial, and Resurrection.
Being in Christ is a dramatic and remarkable change from what has come before. It should bring about a radical change in the way we think, live, and relate to others.
The Greek word translated as creation, creature, being, or person is ktisis. In Paul’s writings, Ktisis nearly always means creation rather than creature. New creation, in Greek, is literally “kainos ktisis.” This Greek phrase has no verb or pronoun. Therefore, translators typically supply he is, or there is.
What does this paradigm shift entail?
REFLECT & PRAY
“Whenever a person comes to be part of the body of Christ by faith, there is a new act of creation on God’s part. One set of conditions or relationships has passed out of existence; another set has come to stay” (Murray J. Harris).
Father thank You for providing a whole new way for me to live. I can hardly take it in. I am no longer a prisoner of the past. I have been redeemed and set free to live a new life because of my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Encourage me to make it so.
INSIGHT
2 Corinthians 5:17 Old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
What are the old things? The old things characterized our lives before we became children of the King. The REB renders it “the old order.”
The term “old” (archaios) refers to something that has existed since the beginning, being “ancient,” yet has become ridiculously old-fashioned, outdated, or worn-out, akin to polyester leisure suits, bell-bottoms, and avocado kitchen appliances. These items were once fashionable in the 1970s, but their obsoleteness becomes painfully apparent when compared to the new, what is currently in vogue.
This parallel can also be drawn between the old creation and the new. The contrast between the old life and the new life in Christ, experienced by the transformed believer, is like night and day. There is truly no comparison.
We are no longer prisoners of our former days, bound by the shackles of our past. We are freed from the limitations of the past. We are no longer bound by the memories of darkness and shame. We are no longer victims. We have emerged, redeemed from everything that has held us fast.
Take a moment and reflect. What do you want most side of life? What are you seeking after and longing for? What are the deepest longings of your heart? What drives you and motivates you?
“To Paul, the Christian is, in his favorite phrase, in Christ; and therefore the old self of the Christian died in that death, and a new person arose, as new as if freshly created by the hands of God.”
“In this newness of life, Christians have acquired a new set of standards. They no longer judge things by the standards the world uses. There was a time when Paul had judged Christ by human standards and had set out to eliminate the Christian faith from the world. But not now. Now his standards are different.”
“Now the man whose name he had sought to obliterate is to him the most wonderful person in the world because [the Lord Jesus Christ] had given to him that friendship of God which he had longed for all his life” (Barclay).
Colossians 3:9-10
9 You have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
10 Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
The implications of this are utterly staggering. Being in Christ should bring about a paradigm shift, a radical change in a person’s life. We are to look forward, not backward. Instead of focusing on ourselves, we become Christ-centric.
Philippians 3:13-14
13 Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
“Paul could think more deeply than anyone who ever tried to express the Christian faith; he could travel along uncharted pathways of thought; he could scale the heights of the human mind, where even the best-equipped theologians find it hard to follow him; but always at the end of his letters, he turns to the practical consequences of it all. He always ends with an uncompromising and crystal-clear statement of the ethical demands of Christianity in the situation in which his friends are at the moment” (Barclay).
Paul lays down an explicit, unequivocal demand. “Put to death every part of yourself which is against God and keeps you from fulfilling his will” (Barclay). A radical transformation is required of our desires and actions. Any elements preventing them from fully complying with God’s commands or completely submitting to Christ must be meticulously excised.
Romans 6:4 Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
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© Dr. H 2023
Dr H Reflections 