And to be a new creation is very very deep, remember, GOD was supposed to be thru with all his work right?? Understand then what the writer is implying, a new creation requires work, and what Paul and Jesus both understood is that GOD WAS NOT THRU WORKING ON HUMANITY, IF HE WERE, JESUS CAME FOR NOTHING.
"My food,"*said Jesus,*"is to do the will of him who sent me and to FINISH his work."-John 4:34
Jesus said to finish his work, what work was that?? What was unfinished in man and how does that involve being INSIDE CHRIST and a new creation.
ANSWER: "by abolishing in his flesh*the law with its commandments and regulations.*His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,*
and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross,*by which he put to death their hostility."
One may say "well it was Jesus working not God, his purpose was to make a new man from the two", but to prove it is God working just read two quotes from Jesus.
#1-"Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?*The words I say to you are not just my own.*Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing HIS WORK."
#2-"Jesus said to them,*"My Father*is always at HIS WORK to this very day, and I, too, am working."*
Do you have any idea what all of this is saying and the gravity of such understanding?
If GOD IS still working, and if there is something left unfinished in man that Jesus had to finish, that implies that the work in man on day 6 of Genesis is still going on. It's still day 6. So to be IN CHRIST, completes the transforming of mortal man into an immortal being, just like God is. It transforms sinful man into a holy being, because of the removal of sin by his sacrifice, which is imperative because God is holy. It takes a man in a body that was planted in dishonor, and makes it risen in honor, which God is as well. Everything transformed by being a new creation completes the image of God in man. Sinful man is not the image of God, born again man, created to be like God absolutely is. Thus when Jesus said it is finished on the cross that is what he was implying, that the way for man to be transformed into the image of God was now complete, and until the last man is transformed, that work is still ongoing, even to this very day. This is a mystery of Christ, and more than just a "phrase".