Today's Scripture
Romans 5:12-19; Galatians 1:15-16
The Nature of Regeneration “…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 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 this: that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into their spirit, and thus their 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 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. (Romans 5:12-19) 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.
Today's Prayer
Jesus, help us to yield to You while finishing what You have begun in us. We need You and the world around us needs You revealed through us. We want to BE exactly who You say we are. Help us to embrace the Truth that we need You always. Set us apart for Your glory. Have Your way in us and through us.
