If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “. . . until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit._______________________________________________________________

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

October 6, 2014

Lord, it was an epiphany for me when You were finally able, because of my surrender, to teach me that I was not supposed to make myself a better person. It was like a new dawn when I learned that it was not necessary for me to become a “good person” in order to belong to You.  The many times I tried and failed simply served to show me how far from You I truly was.  Then I gave up trying to become a better person, a man of character; someone that cared about others first. I gave up trying to think the right thoughts, do the right things.  And when I finally gave up, You were able to take over….bit by bit.

And God says…”You will come to a place in your life when you realize you cannot transform yourself, and My Spirit is not free to regenerate and transform you as long as you are attempting to do this for yourself. As Eugene Peterson translated Ephesians 2:8-10, “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. “

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight. And when you cannot find the faith to trust and believe, trust that I can provide the faith, grace and mercy to bridge that gap, and help you when you lack faith and do not wholeheartedly believe. I know the good plans I have for you, plans for a bright future.  Trust in Me, and trust that you can do all things through Me.”