Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor 5:17)
Godly sorrow brings repentance resulting in salvation (2 Cor. 7:10). That same event is also described in these different words:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Rom 6:6,7)
That important passage explains how a person is miraculously and instantly freed from sin and changed into a new creation by God’s grace and mercy. That is a salvation issue and nothing less. This new person because of the new birth now has a spiritual hunger for the message of the Bible, to live holy and apart from sin because he has become the temple of the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit indwelling him:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16,17)
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Rom 6:18)
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Rom 6:20-22)
A new creation in Christ has passed from slavery to sin to slavery to righteousness and God to do his will. That new yoke is easy and the burden is light:
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Mat 11:30)
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3)
The Christian at the new birth is also eager to do that which is good:
Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:14)
When changed, as in the aforementioned ways, that blessed person also finds rest for his soul:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Mat 11:28,29)
The salvation issue of a new creation in Christ also makes one not of this world, but at the same time brings hatred from those who are not following Jesus:
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. (John 17:14)
Wicked and deceived people persecute the Godly because their behavior is righteously different:
They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Pet 4:4,5)
Christians just don’t fit in with the crowd. In fact, we are actually aliens and strangers here:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. (Heb 11:13,14)
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. (1 Pet 2:11)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, (1 Pet 1:1)
Our citizenship, as a follower of Jesus, is in heaven:
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Phil 3:20)
We are also looking forward to the coming major righteous planetary change(s) with will exclude wicked, unrighteous inhabitants:
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Pet 3:13)
I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
That happened the same time the radical new creation and new birth occurred. As great as that is, there is even more! The saint has also passed from spiritual darkness and Satan’s power to light and the power of God:
I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:17,18)
Furthermore, the hatred we had for others when spiritually dead is replaced with love:
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. (1 John 3:14)
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
Even one’s attitude regarding money changes for a new creation in Christ, new birth person:
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” (Luke 19:5-9)
NOTE: When a person becomes a new creation in Christ, he will know it as will others. The change is drastic, for he is a different person in his old physical body of flesh and blood. Jesus used the term born again, which refers to all of this too. The old life of doing your own will to the new life of doing God’s will has taken place. It’s a salvation issue:
Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Eph 4:21-27)
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Col 3:9,10)
If we truly have salvation, we know God and obey his commands. That is also the proof that another person knows God too:
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:3,4)
Many spiritual dangers will come to God’s sheep after the drastic new creation occurs:
● hungry wolves in sheep’s clothing (false prophets and false teachers)To actually enter God’s kingdom after death, we must endure to the end:
All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Mat 10:22)
We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (Heb 3:14)
Many saved people, regretfully, have returned to their former life of spiritual death and slavery to sin, even though they experienced the new creation:
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other (Mat 24:10)
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (1 Tim 4:1)
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66)
Being entangled in and overcome by sin again, after being set free from it, is addressed here:
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” (2 Pet 2:20-22)
God’s paradise kingdom is reserved for the overcomers, while the non-overcomers go to a place of agony and pain in fire:
He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Rev 21:7,8)
We must count the cost to be Jesus’ disciple (Lk. 14:26-33), even though any price is worth paying to have him and eternal life. The Lord demands much and clearly stated who is not worthy of Jesus
Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Mat 10:37,38)
On the other hand, the Lord also told us who was worthy to walk with him:
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. (Rev 3:4)
Hence, the vital salvation question related to entering God’s kingdom is not, as often asked as referring to a PAST event:
Have you ever been born again?
Again, though common among the church goers, that is not what is being said in the Bible about final salvation! The pivotal issue is much different. The real question of importance is in the PRESENT tense:
Are you now following Jesus as a faithful servant doing His will in spite of the persecutions, sufferings, loneliness, family divisions and other painful tests which have come and may be anticipated in the future?
To follow the crowd and sow to please the sinful nature (flesh) will lead to the fiery furnace. To follow Jesus is to have life, but with it goes temporal sufferings and pain during this short unpredictable life. Because of those problems, some have given up and gone back to sin. To enter God’s kingdom we must not give up:
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Gal 6:8,9)
Many who profess salvation have never been radically changed by getting born again. Some were false converts with demon faith, while others were regenerated, but afterwards died spiritually (sometimes quickly) and now need to repent again for salvation's sake (James 5:19,20; etc.). ONLY those who endure to the end will escape damnation and enter God’s Paradise kingdom, according to the Bible. Do not be deceived about these eternal salvation truths. The new creation in Christ is vital for salvation, but so is enduring to the end (Mt. 10:22; Heb. 3:14)!
Other Subjects:
Anathemas - The True And The False
The Image Of A Christian In Our Present Day
Eternal Security or Conditional Security
Evangelical Outreach Alphabetical Map
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