Walking With Christ

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.(ESV)

I’m a Marvel fan, and I liked WandaVision. There, I said it. I’m ready for the haters.

My favorite part of the series involved a paradoxical question that I was introduced to at a very young age and am actually quite fond of: the Ship of Theseus paradox. In short, Theseus, hero in Greek mythology, has a ship, and over time, all the parts are slowly replaced with new parts to maintain the ship’s functionality. The paradox is this: Is the ship the same ship even though all the parts have been replaced, or is it ultimately an entirely new ship? Further, if all the original parts of the ship were gathered and reassembled, which ship would be the real Ship of Theseus?

This paradox has always seemed simple to me because of the way my brain works. The ship is more than the sum of its parts, so changing out all the individual parts doesn’t negate the identity of the ship. Similarly, I am not just this body. This body can be completely replaced, and I will remain the same. If someone were to take the parts of me that had been replaced and reassemble them, as Frankenstein did with his monster, they would still be left with a lifeless husk. It would be missing that vital spark. Even if that body somehow were filled with a spark and had access to the stored memories, it still wouldn’t truly be me.

When I read 2 Corinthians 5:17 in the context of the Theseus paradox and my views on it, it brings the glory of God into much sharper focus. The body can pass away while I remain the same, yet Christ can make us new. The reminder that Christ has made me new and that I’m no longer chained to who I was is almost enough to bring me to tears at times. It took the children of Israel forty years to shed their old identity as slaves. I’m slowly watching the pieces of my old identity slip away, and I find that I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would.