Berean Standard Bible
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!
King James Version
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
About this verse
The language is Genesis-scale: "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." Not a renovated version, not the old self with upgrades — creation, the word for God making what did not exist before. The tenses are equally bold: "The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!" Accomplished, not aspirational. And there is a "Behold" — the verse points, as at something that can actually be seen. Do not miss the first word of the offer, either: anyone.
Paul writes this to Corinth while explaining his ministry of reconciliation — and the sentence just before it says he no longer regards anyone according to the flesh, by outward credentials and old categories. This verse is the reason those categories fail: if people in Christ are new creations, then their résumés, reputations, and rap sheets are out-of-date documents.
This is the verse of fresh starts — conversion, recovery, the person haunted by who they used to be. Its claim is stronger than self-reinvention, and differently located: the newness happens "in Christ," not in a new routine, city, or resolution. Your past remains a fact. What it is no longer, the verse insists, is your definition.
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