“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).

New (Gr. Kainos): Denotes a different form, quality, nature or character as contrasted with the old.

We humans are a contradiction. We like the new. We like the old. We like new things; we like old ways. We like new songs; we like old songs; new cars, old cars. What do we want, anyway?

In God’s new, in God’s Kainos, there is freedom, righteousness, holiness and goodness. Who wouldn’t love God’s new? Well, for one, the devil. The devil wants bondage, wickedness, sin and hate. Quite the contrast, don’t you think?

God’s new is a new nature, a new character, a new life. The Apostle writes: We are buried with Christ by baptism into death, that like 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). Think of that, a new life!

In our world we are experiencing change. It seems every day there is some new challenge to our old ways of thinking, our old lifestyles, our way of living with our traditions, customs and mores. How to cope? How to keep our bearings? our sanity in all this that is new? The only way I know is to stay in God’s new, in the Kainos of the Spirit. We need to stay in the “newness of life” in Christ Jesus. It is the best counter to all the challenges we face every day.

Staying in the newness of life in Christ Jesus takes a change in nature. The Apostle Peter writes: we have been given exceeding great and precious promises; that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (II Peter 1:4). God’s new brings us into a new nature, the divine nature of Christ Jesus. In the divine nature there is peace, there is contentment even in our discontent. There is an authority even to the point of laying down our lives in sacrifice. Jesus said, “No man takes my life from Me; I lay it down of Myself. I have authority (exousia) to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father” (John 10:18). Living in the divine nature is living in the newness of life in the authority of Christ.

What a wonderful thing it is to walk in authority; to have control over our own bodies, our minds, our emotions, our soul by the authority of the Spirit of Christ. The new life, the Kainos of God, the divine nature brings this to us to govern our hearts and keep us in the freedom of the Spirit.

The tyrants of this world desire to keep us under control. They want authority over every area of our being. The enemies of God seek to destroy the works of God and His creation. There is a great battle going on in the unseen world of the heavenlies, the spiritual world of angels and demons, darkness and light, God and Satan; all of which effect us in the seen, the visible, the natural realm on planet Earth. So here we are living out our lives in all the chaos.

Be encouraged, saints of God. We have an answer. We have an understanding of the battlefield. We have a counter for every move of the enemy. We have been given the Spirit of Christ, dwelling in our hearts by faith to walk in the newness of Life; His Life, His Kainos, His new.

In this new, in this Kainos there is a new Form of Being. Christ is formed in us (cf. Galatians 4:19). In His Life there is a new quality of living that is the Life of Another. This is the new creation, “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (cf. Ephesians 2:10). This is what God ordained for you before the foundation of the world. Behold, the new! Embrace it. Welcome it. Walk in it. When we do, then in all things Christ will be glorified!

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