When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
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.
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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, It is so awesome, what You can do, put your Holy Life into my unholy life. It’s so profound, and so simple. And I can mess it up and miss it so many ways. As Chambers says, my part is to just show up and agree with your position on sin, especially as it resides in me. Then I can simply take you up on your offer, which Jesus provides … as long as I don’t complicate it, codify it, politicize it, or make it into a religious system. Since it is so clearly a wonderful deal… Why do I stumble back into my old ways so easily?
Those old ways will always be easy to walk in. It’s always about choice. I give humans free will and choice. Many little choices every day. How will you respond to that driver who cut you off? Will you strike back at the office slight? Will you join in on the gossip? You don’t even have the power to make all the best choices in all those situations with all the willpower you can muster in your own nature. But with my nature in you by my Holy Spirit, you can amaze even yourself.
Joshua 24:15 The Message (MSG)
15 “If you decide that it’s a bad thing to worship God, then choose a god you’d rather serve—and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from the country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whose land you’re now living. As for me and my family, we’ll worship God.”
Just remember, what you are choosing is agreement with me and surrender of your own rights and agenda and letting my power flow thru you to accomplish my agenda which becomes our agenda together. It’s not just choosing to stop bad habits. You won’t have the power to do that. Choose to agree with me and accept my gift of my Life and Spirit and we’ll walk together.
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