A New Person with a New Life
There are several ways to describe what happens when a person comes to know Christ as Lord and Savior. God shows the prophet Ezekiel how salvation in the New Covenant time after the death and resurrection of Christ would be different from his time under the Old Covenant.(Ezekiel 36:26,27) His way of explaining it to Ezekiel was having a new heart, which is the same as being a new person. Then, He told him that the result of having His Spirit would be a new life, following the statutes and judgments of the Lord. I think that sums it up very well, don't you?
The Bible is clear that every believer is a new creation, a new person. Jesus, Himself, said that we must be born again by the Spirit. Paul said that the old man was dead, and he was a new person in whom the Lord lived. Peter said that believers were made partakers of the divine nature. When we come to Christ, we are new persons. Then, the presence of the Spirit of God makes a huge difference, because we live according to the dictates of God, not our own whims. The Spirit is there to guide us, empower us, and even chastise us into a new pattern of life. God even decided long ago that any person who trusted Christ, would be conformed to His image.(Romans 8:29) It is not a matter of if we will become like Jesus, only when. God is a wonderful Father, and He knows just what to do to accomplish a new life for His children.
All of this is why we say that Christianity is much more than a religion. It is the opposite of following your conscience. It is being changed by the power of God once we surrender to Christ in faith, so that God saves us from our sins by His grace, and He sets us on the straight way that is narrow. That life is much different from the lives of those on the broad road to destruction. If you have never experienced these changes, seek the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible and in prayer, or let me or another believer help you come to be a new person with a new life.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 38-41.
The Bible is clear that every believer is a new creation, a new person. Jesus, Himself, said that we must be born again by the Spirit. Paul said that the old man was dead, and he was a new person in whom the Lord lived. Peter said that believers were made partakers of the divine nature. When we come to Christ, we are new persons. Then, the presence of the Spirit of God makes a huge difference, because we live according to the dictates of God, not our own whims. The Spirit is there to guide us, empower us, and even chastise us into a new pattern of life. God even decided long ago that any person who trusted Christ, would be conformed to His image.(Romans 8:29) It is not a matter of if we will become like Jesus, only when. God is a wonderful Father, and He knows just what to do to accomplish a new life for His children.
All of this is why we say that Christianity is much more than a religion. It is the opposite of following your conscience. It is being changed by the power of God once we surrender to Christ in faith, so that God saves us from our sins by His grace, and He sets us on the straight way that is narrow. That life is much different from the lives of those on the broad road to destruction. If you have never experienced these changes, seek the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible and in prayer, or let me or another believer help you come to be a new person with a new life.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 38-41.