“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17 ESV)

New!

New is defined in the dictionary as having recently come into existence. It’s being fresh, brand-new, mint, virgin, new-fashioned, and unspoiled.

This is what happens to your inner spirit when you become born again (John 3:1–21). Even though your body and mind are the same after you receive Christ, your spirit becomes totally transformed which affects the rest of you: the way you take care of your body, now a temple for the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19–20), and the way you work daily to bring your mind (your thinking) into line with God’s Word (Rom. 12–2).

Therefore

“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5)

“And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—“ (Col. 1:21-22)

“in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Eph. 4:22-24)