Sunday, June 14, 2015

Spiritual Rebirth

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

What occurs in the new birth? We are given a new nature. 

We are given a new mind, a new intellectual nature that instead of being blind to the truth of God is open-eyed to the truth of God. Countless times I have seen thoroughly darkened minds become illuminated by the Holy Spirit in a moment's time, and spiritual truths long considered foolishness are suddenly as clear as day.

We are given a new affectional nature as the Holy Spirit transforms us. We get new tastes instead of the old tastes, new loves instead of the old loves. Instead of loving the things that displease God, we now love what pleases God. The things we once hated we now love, and the things we once loved we now hate.

We are also given a new volitional nature, that is, we are given a new will. When one is born again of the Spirit, his will is not longer set upon pleasing self: his will is set upon pleasing God. There is nothing else in which he so delights as in the will of God. What he himself desires is nothing to him: what pleases God is everything to him.

The new birth is the impartation of God's own nature into men who are dead in their trespasses and sins. It is the Holy Spirit who imparts this nature. Just as we are utterly dependent upon the work of Christ for us in justification, so we are utterly dependent upon the work of  the Holy Spirit in us for regeneration. The whole work of regeneration can be described in this way: The human heart is the soil, the Word of God is the seed, and believers are the sowers. Believers go to the granary of the Bible and take from it that portion of seed they wish to sow; they preach or teach or speak to someone about it; but if it all stopped there there would be no new birth. But if they look to the Holy Spirit to do His work while they sow the Word, He will quicken the seed as it is sown, and it will take root in the hearts of those who listen, and the human heart will close around it by faith, and a new creation will be the result.

God, You are awesome in Your power to transform our lives. There is no miracle that compares to the miracle of the new birth. How I praise You for working in my life, and for saving me from eternal death and corruption. Amen

~R. A. Torrey~

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