We Have Received a New Life (1)- long


	We Have Received a New Life Introduction The first marvelous thing that happened to us when we believed in Jesus Christ was that we received a new life. As human beings, all of us have a human life. Our human life is mortal, temporary, and fragile. But when we were born again, we received a new life. This new life we received is divine, eternal, and indestructible. In fact, it is the life of God Himself. 1. The Life of God According to the Bible, before we were born again we were "dead." Ephesians 2:1 says that we were "dead in our offenses and sins." Of course, we may have thought that we were very much alive. But from God's point of view we were dead, because we did not have His divine, eternal life. The life of God is the life that is "really life" (1 Tim. 6:19). Our human life is temporary, but the life of God is eternal. Our human life is fallen and sinful, but the life of God is divine and incorruptible. Our human life is weak and frail, but the life of God is indestructible. When we were born again, we received the life of God Himself. We were previously dead in all our offenses and sins, but then we were born again. We received a new life, the divine and eternal life of God. Now we are truly alive! On one hand we can say that the life of God came into us. Yet this life is inseparable from God Himself. We must realize that when this life came into us, the Triune God Himself came into us. God the Father came into us, God the Son came into us, and God the Spirit came into us. The Triune God came into us as the eternal life. Now God is no longer outside of us. The moment we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Triune God came into us. When we were born again, God came into us as life. There are many verses in the Bible which reveal this to us. First John 5:12 tells us, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." This verse is obviously not talking about the human life. It is talking about God's divine and eternal life. If we do not have the Son, we do not have the life. After we are born again, we can say, "Yes, I have the life! I have the life of God Himself!" John 3:16 is a famous verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but have eternal life." Yet we have often misunderstood this verse to mean that after believing in the Lord Jesus we will one day go to heaven. But we should put it together with John 3:36, which says, "He who believes into the Son has eternal life." This verse doesn't say, "He who believes into the Son will one day go to heaven." Nor does it say, "He who believes into the Son will have eternal life in the next age." The verse says that once we believe into the Son, we have eternal life. We do not have to wait until the next age. Because we are born again, we have the eternal life of God. In John 10:10 the Lord Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly." This was the Lord's purpose in coming to the earth. He came with the divine, eternal life, and He came so that we would have this life abundantly. Then in John 14:6 the Lord said, "I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." Jesus said this about Himself: "I am the life." When we believed in Christ, we received Him as our life. Finally, Colossians 3:4 says, "When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory." This verse shows us that because we have been born again, Christ is our life today. When we were born again we received a new life, the life of God Himself. 2. A New Heart In the moment we were born again and received a new life, we also received a new heart. "I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). We must realize that before we were saved our heart was a heart of stone. Before we believed in the Lord, our human spirit was dead. As we shall see, it is in our human spirit that we receive the life of God. Before we were born again our spirit was dead, and our heart was like stone to the things of God. But after we were born again we received a new heart. This new heart is called a "heart of flesh." It is a heart that is tender and sensitive, and it is filled with feeling towards God. People who are not born again are often hard towards the things of God. This means that their heart is stone, because their spirit is dead. For example, non-Christians sometimes say, "Where is God? If you can't show me God, then I will never believe in Him." This is nonsensical. We don't need to see everything in order for it to exist. No one can say, "Show me the air. If you can't show me the air, then I don't believe it exists." We can't see the air, but if we stop breathing we will die. It is foolish to say, "I will only believe that air exists if you can prove it to me." Yet people say this about God. "If you can prove to me there is God, then I will believe in Him." If we hear this we should reply, "I don't have to show you God. If you just call on the Lord's name, then you will have Him. If you don't call on the Lord you are dead already. You may be alive as a human being, but your spirit is dead to God. Because your spirit is dead, your heart is as hard as stone. That is why you question God's existence." We need to have a heart of flesh. When we were born again, God gave us a new heart so that we could respond to His life within us. People who have a stony heart always think that they are right and everyone else is wrong. They do their best to gain their own profit at the expense of others. They are centered on themselves and have no interest in the things of God. Before we believed in the Lord, we also had such a heart. But after we were born again, we received a new heart. Our heart became a heart of flesh. Our heart became soft and tender towards God. Our new heart is sensitive to the new life we have within us. 3. A New Spirit This same verse from Ezekiel says that when we were born again, a new spirit was given to us. Not only do we have a new heart, but we also have a new spirit. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, our human spirit was dead. But now we have a new spirit, which is a living spirit. When God first created man, He created him with a human spirit to contact God. But after the fall of man, and after man's continuous degradation, the human spirit within man became deadened. Every human being who has not believed in the Lord Jesus has a dead spirit. But once we are born again, we can say, "My spirit is living!" We have received a new spirit, a spirit filled with life. Before we were born again, whenever we heard about Jesus we got bothered. Whenever we went to a church service we felt it was too long. Whenever we saw a Bible we wanted to toss it aside. But when we were born again we received a new spirit, and everything changed. All of a sudden we began to enjoy meeting with Christian brothers and sisters. We loved reading the Bible. We loved hearing and talking about Jesus. Because our spirit was made alive, we became so interested in the things related to God. This is the result of being born again. 4. The Light of Life John 1:4 tells us, concerning the Lord Jesus, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Then the Lord Himself said, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). When we were born again, we also received the light of life. This indicates that before we were born again, we were in darkness. We know this from our own experience. Before we believed in the Lord we didn't know who God was, or if He even existed. We didn't know the meaning or the purpose of our own human life. We didn't even know right from wrong, and we didn't really care. But after being born again we received the light of life. The new life we received enlightened us. God became real to us. Our human existence became meaningful. This light also exposed the darkness within us. We began to realize what was right and what was wrong. We even learned that some things were wrong even though they appeared normal. Concerning many things, the light of life made us realize, "I can't do this anymore. It used to be okay, and it seems normal outwardly, but I just sense that God is not pleased." By receiving the life of God, we also received the light of life. Now that we are born again, the light of life constantly shines within us and enlightens us. 5. The Law of Life When we were born again we also received the law of life. "For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). What is the law of life? Every kind of life - whether it be vegetable life, animal life, or human life - has its law. To name just one example, our human life demands sleep. If we don't get enough sleep over a long period of time, we easily become irritable. When we are overly exhausted we become ill-tempered. There is nothing wrong about this. Our human life simply must have enough sleep, and once we sleep everything will be fine. We have to fulfill the law of our human life. But now that we are born again, we have the life of God. That means that within us there is also another law, the law of the divine life. Under that law something strange happens. We find out that we are limited and restricted by a law that is deep within us. Under this new law there are many things we cannot do. Formerly if we were driving somewhere in our car and a person cut us off, we would be tempted to react. We might have even done the same thing to him. But after we are born again, we are no longer so free. If someone cuts us off while we are driving and we are about to react, immediately something within us says, "I'm not happy with this. Don't do it." The law of life within us disagrees with anything that does not correspond to God Himself. That is why the more we do things that are according to the life of God, the happier we become. The more we learn to live by the law of life, the more we sense the Lord's presence. Conclusion Isn't it surprising how much we received at the moment we were born again? We will probably never fully comprehend it. When we first opened to the Lord and received Him as our Savior, we actually received a new life with so many wonderful items. At that moment the Triune God entered into us to be our very life. We received a new heart and a new spirit. We received the light of life and the law of life. We were sealed with the Holy Spirit and received the Spirit as a pledge. The life of God began to move within us as the anointing. Also we received the life-giving Spirit who brings us into all the reality. We treasure what the Lord has done for us and all the riches He has given to us. All of these wonderful items are now for us to enjoy, because we have been born again! To purchase the book Born Again