[ 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. ]
Thats a metaphorical phrase if I ever heard one..
Unless you’re talking about magic..
The Body of Christ and Bride of Christ are both metaphors of the same thing from different angles..
They are real in a metaphorical kind of way.. “in christ” may refer to them/that..
“In Messiah”.. is the same thing, for christ is the messiah..
The Body of Christ is a metaphorical instrument for “WE” are not Christ.. the Messiah.. you know Jesus <;)..
Many get their literals mixed up with their metaphors.. and their metaphors mixed up with their literals..
Makes for good comedy and entertainment.. but drives some folks nuts..
Most christian religions are made that way..
I always find it interesting, as well as amusing and entertaining, to watch someone who admits a staggering ignorance of spiritual matters pontificate about said spiritual matters as if they actually know of what they speak.
Your denial of reality by scornfully labeling it as magic and declaring it to be merely metaphor, does not make it so.
A person who has been born again, of course knows the reality of the situation. What you are doing is akin to a blind man claiming there is no light because he cannot see it, or the deaf claiming sound is not real because he cannot hear it.
The reality transcends any spiritually dead person’s ability to perceive it.
Writing off someone’s experience of being born again simply because y’all never experienced it personally, is self-deception of the highest degree.
FWIW, true Christianity is not a *religion*. A religion is man’s efforts to reach God. Being born again is God reaching man in a relationship. It’s not a system of do’s and don’t’s designed to make the human acceptable to God. It’s Christ’s righteousness being imputed to man so that that man is no longer under God’s judgment for his sin, but rather forgiven so that he can have a relationship with God.