The New Person
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Romans 6:1–2
The prophet Ezekiel said, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). In the book of Acts, Peter called it repenting and being converted. Paul speaks of it in Romans as being “alive from the dead” (Romans 6:13). In Colossians Paul calls it “[a putting off of] the old man with his deeds; and [putting] on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (3:9–10). In Titus he calls it “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (3:5). Peter said it was being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). John termed it passing “from death unto life” (John 5:24). In the Church of England catechism it is called “a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness.”
Thus the Bible teaches that man can undergo a radical spiritual and moral change that is brought about by God Himself. The word that Jesus used, and which is translated “again,” actually means “from above.” The context of the third chapter of John teaches that the new birth is something that God does for man when man is willing to yield to God. Man does not have within himself the seed of the new life; this must come from God Himself.
One day a caterpillar climbs up into a tree where nature throws a fiber robe about him. He goes to sleep, and in a few weeks he emerges a beautiful butterfly. So man—distressed, discouraged, unhappy, hounded by conscience, driven by passion, ruled by selfishness, belligerent, quarrelsome, confused, depressed, miserable, taking alcohol and barbiturates, looking for escapisms—can come to Christ by faith and emerge a new man. This sounds incredible, even impossible, and yet it is precisely what the Bible teaches.
Do you feel you are in a cocoon? Turn to Christ and ask Him to give you your beautiful wings so that you might soar above your problems and be victorious over them.
Our Father and our God, change my heart from rebellion to submission. Take away my evil passions and desires; replace them with commitment and joy. Give me my wings, Lord, so I can fly above my problems and temptations. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010.