Title: Newness of Life
Topic: Salvation
Summary: What the Bible calls newness of life is not just a matter of changing our behaviors but of gaining a new heart and a new spirit.
Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.
References:
Romans 6:1, 4
Isaiah 65:17; 66:22
Jeremiah 31:31
Leviticus 3:1, 14, 17, Leviticus 3:23, Leviticus 3:26, Leviticus 3:33, Leviticus 3:40-41
Ezekiel 11:16; 18:30; 36:25
John 3:3
Romans 12:1-2
2 Corinthians 4:16; 5:17, 10
Galatians 6:12
Ephesians 4:17, 24
Colossians 3:5, 9-11
Titus 3:1-5
Revelation 21:1-5
Isaiah 62:1-2
249 - Newness of Life
By Jonathan S. Rose
Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 12/30/2015. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com
2 Corinthians 5:17
17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
True Christianity #601
601. When We Have Been Regenerated, We Have a New Will and a New Intellect
When we have been regenerated we are renewed, or new. This is something the church of today knows, both from the Word and from reason.
We know this from the following teachings in the Word.
Make your heart new and your spirit new. Why should you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 18:31)
I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
From now on we regard no one on the basis of the flesh. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, she or he is a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)
The new heart in these passages means a new will and the new spirit means a new intellect, since "heart" in the Word means the will and "spirit," when it appears alongside "heart," means the intellect.
From reason as well we know about our renewal: the person who has been regenerated must have a new will and a new intellect, because these two faculties are what make us human. They are the parts of us that are regenerated. The quality of these two faculties determines the quality of the human being. People who have an evil will are evil; if their intellect supports that will, they are even more evil. The opposite is true of good people.
Only religion renews and regenerates us. It is allotted the highest place in the human mind. Below itself it sees civic concerns that relate to the world. In fact, it rises up through these concerns the way the purest sap rises up through a tree to its very top, and surveys from that height the earthly things that lie below, the way someone looks down from a tower or a high point of land onto the fields below.
