What is the Church? (Part 4) (affirming and reaffirming the word of God) Once a person becomes born of God and receives the life of God their spirit is instantaneously regenerated. You could say that they become members of a new race; a new class of being which never existed before. The entire New Testament of the Bible is devoted to showing us who that person is and how to act in accordance with this new life. God cannot hook-up with unregenerate man. Man's natural state is identical to that of his predecessor, Adam -- fallen from fellowship (or at-oneness) with his Creator. Sure, God can still work around his life, impacting it through his environment, affecting a man's life from the outside in, but not until man's spirit is delivered from spiritual death through the New Birth can God come into him and work from the inside out. This is why man MUST be born again (John, chapt. 3) When I first came to Christ I literally felt the mighty impetus of God's New Life come rushing into me, immediately affecting my darkened mind and flooding it with his life. I knew I had become what they call, Born Again. Not everyone has this feeling when they come to receive Christ, but I did. Did I ever! In fact, I was in the Navy at the time, and I had to take a battery of tests the following week. These were tests on all subjects: math, history, science, english, etc. Whereas before my poor, burnt-out mind, could hardly concentrate (my Christian friend, Tommy, whom I mention in my testimony, once said of my previous condition that I had scrambled eggs for brains!), I ended up taking the tests and noticed that even my mental powers were sharp and clear. I aced the tests and later found out that I was among the highest set of scores in the Navy! I could only attribute this to my new found life in Christ and the changes it made in my entire life. This Life is not only an ethereal spiritual concept but it is a biological reality! It will change a person from the inside out. Even though I had this dynamic at work in my life, it didn't take long for me to realize that I still struggled with temptation to sin, old ways of thinking, occasional dark depression, discouragment and failure. My mind and body still tried to maintain control. In fact, despite the miracle of my changed life, it soon dawned on me that there was a real war going on inside of me! The inner man (my spirit) was indeed born again, but the old, standard operating procedures of my mind, will and emotions continued to exist along with him. The Bible has much to say about this condition. It is the state of every person coming to Christ after living a self-ruled lifestyle for so many years, and even for those who are believers from early childhood. It is as though the world's view of life comes into our minds through osmosis. No amount of isolation and attempts to separate oneself from society will purify that. A recluse will have his mind influenced by evil as though through the air waves! This should not be so hard to believe. It is not our environment nor even the acts of others which contamminates us. It is the fact that we are shot through and through with sin. Sin is the cause of all that is sick, hurtful and hateful in the world. The wages of sin is death... The only combatant for this condition in us, after receiving Christ, is what the Bible calls "the renewing of your mind". This can only take place through the Word of God. The word of God is not for unbelievers (with the exception being when and where it gently beckons them to come to know God, or warns them of their urgent need for Christ). It is primarily a statement of receipt to the believer. It is saying, in effect, "now that you have come to Christ, you are a new creation, don't act that way anymore, act this way, in accordance with what you have now become!" Our meditation and reflection upon these instructions will allow us to be renewed in our minds and cause our wills to come into conformity with our regenerated spirit. The Bible promises us that the Holy Spirit (our resident tutor) will take this word and make it real to us, make it come alive in us, renew our world view. "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you," Jesus says to his disciples in John chapter 15. The word of God is the cleansing agent for those of us who have been born of God. "As newborn babes," Peter says in his epistle, " earnestly desire the sincere milk of the word of God, that you may grow thereby." |