Nang
TOL Subscriber
This is a good point.
The BOC is a new creation.
There are two different words used in the Greek NT to describe "new".
One is kainos.
One is neos.
Neos is in respect to age --- new born baby, brand new car, etc. (something you did not have before).
Kainos is in respect to condition --- pristine, unblemished, spotless. (doesn't matter how long you have had it).
Now, you can be neos, but not kainos.
A brand new car can be defective (blemished in some way). If it's defective, it is not kainos.
Or you can be both neos and kainos.
A brand new car that is pristine, no blemishes.
Or you can be kainos, but not neos.
You can wash, starch, and iron an old shirt (making is pristine, but it's not a new (neos) shirt).
The "new" creature that we become in the BOC is kainos. (2 Cor 5:17 and Gal 6:15)
Doesn't matter how old you were when you were saved into the BOC (like an old shirt cleaned up).
What you become is kainos --- pristine, without blemish, spotless.
There has only ever been one that was always without blemish and spotless --- Christ.
It is the newness (kainos) of Christ that is imputed to us.
We did not clean ourselves up before we could be saved, for Christ saved us WHILE we were sinners.
And it is that salvation by grace that saved us and imputed the kainos of Christ to us.
What is even more amazing is that the verb tenses denote a perpetual condition, meaning that once you have been imputed the pristine righteousness of Christ, you remain forever in that condition. It never changes.
And it has nothing to do with any self righteousness you thought you had accumulated.
A justified soul will live a sanctified life of repentance and faithful holiness; confessing and exhibiting the moral and holy standards of their Holy Savior who raised them from death, and gave them spiritual life.