When Jesus said, “It is Finished,” our history as a New Creations began. At the Cross, Jesus gathered up collective humanity and took us, in Him, to the place of execution, where the guilty slave to sin was crucified with him. 2 Corinthians 5: 14 says, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;” Jesus died for us by dying as the collective “us.” Being “in Christ” did not begin the moment of your conversion; it actually began 2000 years ago in the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. You were in Christ at the Cross, but it became real to you at your conversion, even though it was real about you 2000 years ago. You see, at the Cross, all of your transgressions, past, present, and future, were paid for in the death of Jesus. His death for your sin was your death for your sin. There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because the sentence for your sin was already carried out on you, in His person, at the Cross. Let that sink in for a second; it would be unjust for God to condemn you now that you have accepted His finished work on the Cross because the condemnation for your sin and its sentence has already been carried out, and you are a totally different person with a totally new identity.
When you died in Christ at the Cross 2000 years ago in your co-crucifixion with Him, not only was your guilt assuaged through the payment of death, but you, the slave to sin, were crucified, died, and were buried, and you rose up out of the grave in union with His resurrection life, as a totally new self, with a new heart, and a new power to live a totally new kind of life. This is the gospel!! Jesus could have just simply died on the Cross for your sin, and, having paid your penalty, declared you forgiven, but guilt is not our only problem that needed to be dealt with. The other problem was the kind of person you and I were. There was something wrong with us in our fallen condition that drove us to the kind of behavior that required the penalty of death. Jesus didn’t just pay for your sins. He took you, the old you, the slave to sin, to the Cross, and put to death the old person that you were, so that raised up with Him, you could be a totally new person driven by His very supernatural life in you. Again, this is the glorious gospel; not just forgiven, but re-created in Christ, in union with His resurrection life, so that He once again has a body through which He can continue to live His life, and tell His story of redemption to a fallen world. At the Cross, when Jesus said, “It is Finished,” He saw a whole new humanity, and a whole new world being accomplished, yet to be manifested. Look at what verse 15 in 2 Corinthians 5 says, “and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Even though Christ died for, and as all, only those who say yes to His free gift offer of being a forgiven new creation, come alive. When we are Born Again, we, a completely new person, are birthed, and we become the firstfruits of the redemption of all things yet to be manifested.