The condition of fallen mankind was so desperate that God alone, without any assistance on our part, or even in consultation with us, stepped in and took care of all that we had done wrong by absorbing our sin in Himself on the cross, and in the resurrection changed who we had become into a new creation. John 3 says that we had to be born from above, and we were born from above through our union Jesus. First Corinthians 15:47 says, “The first man (Adam) is from the earth, earthy; the second man (Jesus) is from heaven.” Our new self was created by being grafted into that man (Jesus) from heaven – thus born from above. Speaking to Jewish religious leaders Jesus said to them, “You are from below; I am from above; you are of this world; I am not of this world.” John 8:23.
Jesus was standing firmly on the earth when he said that he was from above. He was from heaven, and manifested the reality and will of heaven, while living on earth clothed in human flesh. In Christ heaven and man – God and humanity- were co-mingled. God saved us from what we had done, and who we were by placing us into the very heavenly life of Jesus. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” God did not rescue us by simply brushing off our spiritual dirt, declare us forgiven, and then give us the Holy Spirit, who promised to help us be a better version of who we were. Instead, he rescued us by sweeping us into the life that Jesus lives, which is heavenly in nature, and totally changed our identity to be the righteousness of God in Christ. Christianity is not a refurbishing of our fallen humanity. It is a new creation, created in Christ Jesus. Notice I did not say created “by“ Christ Jesus, because it’s bigger than that. We were literally created in the stuff (substance) of Christ Jesus.
