The New Creation which was ready to be born while Paul was writing Romans happened in the first century. Remember, the Jewish temple was the ultimate standing symbol of the Jewish law, the body of death, the place where animals were being sacrificed on our behalf. That body of death WAS destroyed and a new body of Christ (the Church) finally WAS inaugurated (in 70AD) into God's presence; only in this body can one find life. The Church is the New Creation, the New Jerusalem, the New Israel, the new "living body.""
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