We Have Received a New Life!


	We Have Received a New Life! Introduction We would like to continue our fellowship concerning the marvelous new life that we received when we were born again. Here we will cover an additional points on this life. 1. Sealed with the Holy Spirit Ephesians 1:13 says, "In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise." We were sealed with the Holy Spirit. What does this mean? It is very similar to what a farmer does to his cattle - he brands them with his seal so that everyone knows who they belong to. For us to be sealed means that from now on we belong to someone else. Of course, that "someone else" is the Lord. When we were first born again, other Christians may have told us, "Now that you are saved you have to give yourself to the Lord." But actually that was not necessary. After being born again, no one needs to tell us anything. Why? Because the Lord has sealed us. We now belong to Him. Because we were sealed with the Holy Spirit, we will be encouraged and strengthened to live for the Lord by the divine life within us. After being born again, there is a seal on us that testifies to whom we belong. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. It is no longer possible for us to belong to someone else. We cannot even belong to ourselves. The life within us will always remind us that we belong to the Lord. Second Timothy 2:19 tells us, "However the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are His…." Before we were born again we may have thought that we belonged to ourselves. Actually, we belonged to Satan's kingdom. But when we were born again we were sealed with the Holy Spirit. We became the Lord's possession. If Satan were to come and try to take us away from the Lord, the Lord would say, "Don't touch him. He belongs to Me." The moment we opened our heart and the Lord came into us, at that very moment we were sealed. The seal of the Holy Spirit testifies that we belong to God Himself. 2. The Spirit as a Pledge Not only were we sealed, but we also received the pledge of the Spirit. Ephesians 1:14 says that the Holy Spirit is "the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory." This understanding is also found in 2 Corinthians 1:22: "He [God] who has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge." What is the difference between being sealed with the Holy Spirit and having the Spirit as a pledge? For us to be sealed means that we belong to God. For us to receive the Spirit as a pledge means that God belongs to us. The word "pledge" can also be translated as "foretaste" or "guarantee." The Spirit as a pledge is actually a foretaste, a guarantee, of what our enjoyment will be in eternity. We often try to imagine what things will be like in eternity. But we don't have to imagine it, because we already have a foretaste. Often when we are enjoying the Lord, especially when we are with other believers, we experience an incredible joy. No matter how wonderful that joy is, it is only a foretaste of our enjoyment in eternity. Our foretaste is the Spirit as a pledge to us. If someone asks us, "What will it be like in the next age?" we should say, "Have you ever enjoyed the Lord in your spirit? That is the foretaste of our enjoyment in the age to come." When we enjoy the Lord in this age, that is to experience a pledge. The overwhelming joy and peace we experience at such times is a pledge to tell us what we will experience constantly in the next age. Whenever we enjoy the Lord in our spirit we get so excited. We realize, "Hallelujah! I have the Lord's presence! Oh, it is so good! It is so wonderful!" This is the foretaste the Lord has given to us. It is the pledge of our inheritance, for us to realize that in eternity we will be joyful and satisfied. Our enjoyment in eternity will be even richer, higher, and fuller than what we are experiencing now. 3. The Anointing When we were born again we received what the Bible calls "the anointing": "And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him" (1 John 2:27). The word "anointing" is a gerund, a verbal noun. It is something active. Ever since we were born again, something within us is active. The life of God that we received actually moves within us all the time. The moving of God's life within us is the anointing. What does the anointing do? According to this verse in 1 John, the anointing teaches us to abide in Him. To follow the Lord after we are born again is not to live by doctrinal teachings, but to experience the Lord within through the anointing. This anointing teaches us how to abide in Him. Not only does it teach us, but it anoints the essence of God Himself into us. When we were born again we received the very life of God. The anointing works the essence of that life with all the riches of God into our being. The more we experience the anointing, the more God Himself is being worked into us. 4. The Life-giving Spirit Finally, when we were born again we received the life-giving Spirit. Actually this point is the same as the first one, receiving God Himself as life. But it is as the life-giving Spirit that God comes into us and brings us into all the reality of His life within us. There are several verses which testify of this. "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (John 7:37-39). This verse shows us that it was not until after Jesus was resurrected (or "glorified") that God could come into us as "the Spirit" to be our life within. Another verse that speaks of the Spirit after Christ's resurrection is 1 Corinthians 15:45: "So also it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living soul'; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." Christ, the last Adam, became "a life-giving Spirit" in resurrection. When we were born again, we received Him as the life-giving Spirit. It is this same Spirit that Christ spoke of to the disciples. "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you" (John 14:16-17). "But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality" (John 16:13a). Christ as the life-giving Spirit has come into our human spirit and will guide us into all the reality of what we have received. We can only experience the life of God by touching the Spirit within our human spirit. "The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16). It is the Spirit that brings us into all the reality of what we have received when we were born again. Before we were born again God was very objective, theoretical, and untouchable. We didn't know God and could not see God. God cannot be seen with human eyes, but He can be realized in our human spirit! The life-giving Spirit has one function, which is to impart the life of God into us. Whenever we exercise our human spirit, the life-giving Spirit begins to operate. And the more the Spirit operates, the more we partake of the riches of the life of God within us. How is it that God Himself can come into us? It seems impossible, because we know that God created the whole universe. He even testified in the Bible, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is a footstool for My feet" (Acts 7:49). But where is this great God today? He is not only in the heavens, and He is not only on the earth, but He is within us. Do we realize that God is within us as life to be enjoyed and received? In resurrection the Lord Jesus became the life-giving Spirit who lives in our spirit and imparts God as life. According to our concept, God is too great to be within us. But according to the Bible the great Creator now lives in our human spirit. Now we can say, "God lives inside of me! He is in my human spirit!" He is there as the life-giving Spirit, imparting His life and His riches to us. As the Spirit He will bring us into all the reality of what we received when we were born again. To purchase the book Born Again