Oct 16
8
THE NEW BIRTH
There are many old houses in our little town. At one time it became very popular for people to buy those old houses and restore them. Often people would remove walls to make bigger, nicer rooms. They would replace all of the windows and doors. They would put a fresh coat of paint inside and out. Do you know what they had when they were finished? They had an 80 year old house with fresh paint and new windows and doors.
Most people think that the new birth is the same as remodeling an old house. They could not be more wrong. The new birth is not the remodeling or rejuvenating of the old nature. Adam’s nature that we are born with is ruined. It is beyond repair and cannot be remodeled. We must be made new. We must be born again (John 3:7).
When God the Holy Spirit moves in power, He does not remodel the old man, He causes God’s elect to be born again. The new birth is the birth of a new man who never existed before. The new man bears the image of our heavenly Father just as the old man bears the image of our earthly father Adam. The old man is born from Adam’s sinful seed, so he is sinful just like his father Adam. The new man is born from new seed – the incorruptible Word of God, so the new man that is born in a believer is holy and righteous just like our heavenly Father. The old man has eyes that only see earthly things. The new man has new eyes that see and understand spiritual things. The old man has ears that can only hear earthly tones. The new man has ears that hear God speak through His Word. The old man has hands and feet that are swift to do evil (Roman 3:15). The new man has hands and feet that are swift to serve and follow Christ. The old man has a dead, corrupt heart that is not capable of believing or loving Christ. The new man has a new heart that is only capable of believing and loving Christ.
Remodeling may be good for an old house, but the old house of my flesh is beyond repair and is only good to be buried under ground. I need a new man, born from above, who believes and loves Christ, who is “made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). –Pastor Frank Tate