The next statement is very terse and reads literally “new creation.” The subject and the verb must be supplied.

Translations usually choose between two options: “he is” (NIV), implying that the person is a new being, or “there is” (NRSV), implying that a new situation has come into being

In the context, he is talking about changing one’s way of looking at things; and this change, which occurs at conversion, is a subjective experience.

On the other hand, Paul also conceives that Christ’s death and resurrection marks a radical eschatological break between the old age and the new. Christ is the divider of history.

Christians see the world in a new way and become new when they are joined to Christ.

The thrust of this statement is that when a person is in Christ, he or she is part of the new creation.

Paul asserted that every person who is in Christ—who is joined to him in his death and resurrection—has become a new creation.

A new creature (καινη κτισις [kainē ktisis]). A fresh start is made (καινη [kainē]).

To be in Christ is to be a new creation (cf. Gal. 6:15). This new creation is brought about by the Holy Spirit, the Agent of regeneration (Titus 3:5) and the Giver of divine birth (John 3:3, 6–8).

To transform a lost sinner into a “new creature” requires the same creative energy that originally brought forth life (John 3:3, 5; Rom. 6:5, 6; Eph. 2:10; Col. 3:9, 10).

The new nature is not merely the product of a desire, or even of a resolution, to do right (Rom. 7:15–18), of mental assent to certain doctrines, of an exchange of one set of opinions or feelings for another, or even of sorrow from sin. It is the result of the presence of a supernatural element introduced into a man, which results in his dying to sin and being born again.

“New” [kainé] implies a new nature quite different from any previously existing: not merely recent [nea], a different Greek word (Gal. 6:15). creature [ktisis]—‘creation,’ and so the creature resulting from it

The individual’s whole being, value system, and behavior are also changed through conversion. We are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ (Rom 6:11).

“The new has come!” Paul believes that the “new thing” that Isaiah foretold God would do has come to pass in Christ.

God has now delivered us from the bondage of sin and led us back from the exile of our estrangement from God to a new reconciled relationship.

The important new thing is God’s reconciliation that enables us to become the righteousness of God (5:21) and brings us salvation

This new thing not only begets new values, it also begets new behavior (1 Cor 6:9–11).

It is true, of course, that for the time being the old still persists and the new has not yet fully come (cf. Rom. 8:18–25; Gal. 5:15–26). However, in our present passage it is the newness of life in Christ now which is being stressed, rather than the limitations and the tension involved in participating in the new creation while still living as part of the old.

Salvation changes a person completely (5:17)

The old life of slavery to self and sin has gone (2 Cor. 5:16; cf. Rom. 6:6–14; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9). The new life of devotion to Christ means that one has new attitudes and actions (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14–15; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:23–5:2).

“the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” Notice the purposeful interchange of verb tenses.

2. “old things passed away” This is AORIST tense and it refers to a completed act in past time. This refers to conversion.

3. “new things have come” This is PERFECT tense which refers to a past completed act with abiding results. This refers to discipleship.

Only “in Christ” can a sinner find acceptance with God (Phil. 3:9) and sustenance for living the new life (John 15:4, 5; Gal 2:20). The joys and sorrows, triumphs and sufferings, of life are all “in Christ” (Rom. 14:17; Phil. 3:9, 10).

old things—selfish, carnal views (cf. v. 16) of ourselves, of others, and of Christ. passed away—spontaneously, like the snow of early spring before the advancing sun.