When I was young, I played a lot of baseball.   I was a pitcher and a shortstop.   I got to be a pitcher for one reason only.  I could throw strikes.  The coach did not care how fast I could throw the ball or how much junk I could put on a throw.  All he wanted was a pitcher who could throw strikes across the plate.  Had I been able to throw it hard and fast and with all kinds of movement on it but not throw strikes, he would not have put me on the mound.

That was a single-minded coach who knew exactly what he was looking for.  It would have done me no good to bring a lot of other stuff to try out.  The coach knew what he was looking for.  That’s what today’s passage reminds me of.

Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

God knows what He is looking for.  God knows exactly what interests Him.  God is not double-minded about this either.

Eternal life is not about what I bring to the table. It is about what God does.  Either I have believed in Jesus and become a New Creation supernaturally by the work of the Holy Spirit, or I haven’t.  The number of years I have spent going to church, attending Sunday School, going on short-term mission trips, reading my Bible, attending vacation Bible school, or participating in any other religious exercise will never be used by God to determine my legitimacy spiritually.

God is only interested in my birthright.  He is interested in what species I am.  He is looking for His DNA in me.  What matters to God is whether or not I have been born again from above.  He is looking to see if I have Christ living in me.  He is looking to see if I have been hidden with Christ in God.  He is looking to see if I am seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

I could do everything else right, and it would not be enough.  Because what I do is not what makes a New Creation.  I have no supernatural power to make myself alive unto God.  I cannot will myself into being a New Creation in Christ.  Paul, as an apostle, knew this all too well.  He had been super zealous for God; he had been a Pharisee of Pharisees; he had been devoted to the law, and he had a strong commitment to holiness and all the important things.  But he discovered that all those supposed accomplishments meant nothing to God.  Paul considered them worthless in comparison to knowing Jesus intimately.

The only way anyone can know Jesus intimately is to start with being born again and becoming a New Creation with Christ’s DNA.  Imposters will not be welcomed. They will not be able to deceive their way in.  A person is either genuinely born again, and a New Creation in Christ, or they are not.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

There’s no mistaking this event.  A person knows when they have become new in Christ.  It is a supernatural reality that forever changes who they are on the inside and works its way out of them as they grow in Christ.   God relates with New Creations, not religious devotees.  God deals with New Creations, not merely good people who try their hardest to better themselves.  It’s all about New Creations with God.