Word for the Day February 12 Tuesday
By: Evang. Cascille Hammack
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation; the old has gone the new has come!"
2 Cor. 5:17
Some people refer to the scripture where Paul referred to himself as the chief of sinners as an example to defend their unchanged
behavior. But Paul was talking about his nature before his conversion to Christ (1 Timothy
1:12-16). He also said, in 1 Corinthians 15:9, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me
did not prove vain" (verse 10). Paul was making plain who he was before Christ and who he was after Christ were two different
people.
Regeneration is the obvious work of the Holy Spirit evident in the lives of those who are
born again. There is a clear repentance from sin, seeking after God with the whole heart and separation from the world and
its systems that is obvious to everyone in those who have been truly born again. The Holy Spirit regenerates, or
gives spiritual birth, to those who are born again. Without it, one cannot receive eternal life and salvation through
Jesus Christ.
Regeneration is a transformation and re-creating of the person by the Holy Spirit (Ro.
12:2, Eph. 4:23,24). Through it, the believer is created to "be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Eph. 4:24 It comes to those who truly hate their sin, repent of it, turn to God (Mt. 3:2) and put their faith in Jesus
Christ as Savior and Lord. With it comes freedom from sin's bondage (John 8:36, Ro. 6:14-23), a spiritual desire
to obey God and avoid a life of sin and separation from the world (1 John 2:15,16). Those who follow the world's
ways, no matter what they profess with their mouths show they are unregenerate. 1 John 3:9, 10 explains, "No one
who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been
born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who
does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."
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