Friday March 10, 2017
“a new desire; a new life”
If you know that He is righteous, you know
that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. – 1 John 2:29
Born Again – The Doctrine of Regeneration
The
character of regeneration
1.
Heavenly birth
2.
God-given life
3.
Transforming power – cont.
In
regeneration, our desires are renewed.
What is born of flesh is flesh, but that to which the Spirit gives birth is Spirit
and has the characteristics of the Spirit. This seed-thought is worked out more
fully by Paul in Romans 8:5 –8. The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, it
does not submit to his law. It cannot please God and walks on the road to
death. All its desires are turned from God to self-pleasing. It has no taste
for spiritual realities but turns from them may even despise them. But the
newly born child of God craves for pure spiritual milk so that by it he may
grow. He has tasted that the Lord is good and he wants more (1 Peter 2:2 – 3).
Regeneration creates new desires to worship God, know his truth, meet his
people, serve his kingdom and love and honor his Son. These aspirations are not
perfect. They ebb and flow. At times we lament their weakness. But however far
short we confess ourselves to have fallen from what we ought to be, we are not
what we once were. Our minds are now set on the things above where Christ is
(Colossians 3:1 – 2).
In
regeneration, we begin to live a new
life. This is a major emphasis in 1 John where the doctrine of
regeneration is dealt with more fully. Everyone who lives righteously is born
of God (1 John 2:29). This righteous living expresses itself in 3 ways: the one
who is born of God loves his fellow believers (1 John 4:7), he overcomes
the world (1 John 5:4), he does not go on sinning (1 John 3:9).
The world around them is a chief source of temptation to sin (1 John 2:15 – 17)
but his relationship to it is radically altered. When it spreads out its
enticing tentacles towards him he recognizes that his new birth has made him a
new creation which those elements will no longer conquer him. Similarly, his
attitude to his fellow Christians becomes a thing of beauty – he loves them
within the affection which is unparalleled. There is no more powerful testimony
to the reality of a new birth and that bonding of human lives together in
Christian Fellowship which transcends the various ordinary relationships. But
can we agree with John that to be born again is no longer to go on sinning? If
Christ came to be our Savior; if one of the focal points of that salvation is
in the deliverance of his people from the bondage of sin, there must be some
sense in which John’s words can be taken at their face value. The
new birth radically and totally transforms the relationship to sin. Christ
Jesus makes man whole, and has begun the process of making all things new.
Challenge:
Blessed be
the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he
has caused us to be born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). The connecting
link between our new faith in our living hope his faith.
This Day in Christian History:
March 10, 1748 – John Newton; after surviving a violent storm at sea, the
vessel survived and Newton began earnestly studying the Bible. He embraced
Christ and eventually entered the ministry, becoming one of England’s best-loved
preachers and a leader in the fight against slavery. He once recalled, “that 10th of March is a day
much remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the
year 1748 – the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters”
Memory Verse:
13 ‘a ‘ene
‘Afio na‘a ne hamusi kitautolu mei he pule ‘a Po‘uli, mo ne hiki kitautolu ki
he pule‘anga ‘o hono ‘Alo ‘Ofa‘anga: 14 pea ‘i he‘etau tu‘u ‘iate ia kuo tau
ma‘u ‘a e huhu‘i, ko e fakamolemole ‘etau ngaahi angahala; – Kolose 1:13-14
13 He has
delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the
Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins. – Colossians
1:13-14
Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)
Week
10 – Numbers 8-25; Psalm 28, 113; Colossians 1-4; Luke 1
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