He Is Making Us New!
September 09, 2026
Welcome back, Cascade Christian community!
It was such a gift to spend last school year walking through the book of Ephesians together as we considered what it means to be Called for a Purpose. This year, our spiritual theme takes us to another of Paul’s letters and to a simple but profound promise:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” —2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
The headline here is fairly obvious: when we are in Christ—when we put our trust in Jesus—we are made new.
Maybe you’ve heard or read this verse countless times, or maybe it’s brand new to you. Either way, you might be finding yourself asking, “That sounds great, but what does it actually mean?”
While the complete answer to that question certainly deserves more space than we can take up here, one thing we can say for sure is that being made new means transformation.
Think about some of the experiences in life that change us: starting at a new school, taking the first steps into adulthood, getting married, having kids. Each of these experiences can change us in profound ways, but none of them can (or should) transform us entirely. With that in mind, consider this: if those life experiences shape us, how much more should encountering Jesus radically change every single thing about us? Paul seems to be suggesting that an encounter with Jesus ought to result in transformation so profound that we should say, “new creation!”
Being made new in Christ is not simply about believing the right things and then waiting around to go to Heaven. Life with Christ is a life in which he is continuously transforming us and inviting us to participate in the new creation work he is already doing in us, the people around us, and throughout the world.
This year, we are excited to explore some of the different ways Scripture describes that transformation. We will talk about a new heart and a new identity. A new mind and a new way of abiding in Christ. A new power and a new way to live. A new mission, a new hope, and ultimately the promise of a new creation.
In other words, “made new” is not merely something that happened once in the past. It describes the life into which Jesus is inviting us.
But there is another important part of this theme: being made new is not just about us.
God does not transform us simply so that we can feel better about ourselves. We are not made new so that we can check a religious box or add “Christian” to the list of things that describe us.
From the beginning, God’s desire was to partner with human beings as his image bearers—for us to reflect his character and goodness into the world he created. Sin fractures that purpose. It separates us from God, but it also separates us from the fullness of what we were created to be.
And then comes Jesus.
Because of the perfect life and sacrificial death of Christ, we are reconciled to God. We are invited into joyful relationship with him, and from that place of security and belonging, we are sent back into the world to live as the people God created us to be. We are made new, and then we are invited to participate in what God is doing.
That happens in big ways, but perhaps even more often it happens in ordinary ones. In our families. In our classrooms. On our playgrounds. In our offices. In conversations with friends. In how we treat the person who frustrates us. In how we respond when someone needs compassion, forgiveness, truth, or hope.
Everywhere we go, we have the opportunity to live as people who have encountered the good news of Jesus and are being transformed by it.
Please join us in praying for our community this year: that our spiritual theme would go beyond a talking point or a program but would become a starting point for real impact and transformation for students, staff, families, and our community at large as we come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be made new in Christ.
As you and your family get back into the rhythms of the school year, our prayer is that you experience peace that comes from a joyful reliance on the Lord and the miraculously good news of the gospel—that we have security in the work of Jesus, and that he is making us new!
