Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 50

February 18;   2 Corinthians 5:17;   154/260(II);   ‘A New Creature’

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

When a person becomes Born Again, they become a new creation.  What part of us becomes new?  It is our spirit.  The Bible says that the Lord removes or recreates our ‘hard heart’ and gives to us a spirit of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).  The word ‘new’ in this verse literally means a new kind.  John 14:17 teaches us that the Holy Spirit comes to live in our spirit as well.  Eternal life is given to us when we make Jesus the Lord of our life through the recreation of our spirit.  What does not change is our physical appearance or our body.  Our mind does not become new either.  The recreation of our spirit is from the Lord.  What we do with our mind and body is up to us.  Our spirit is changed instantly when we are saved.  Our mind is to be gradually renewed with the Word of God and this is progressive.  Our mind still has all of the information in it that it had before we were Born Again.  God’s love now fills our spirit (Romans 5:5) and it is our responsibility to begin to replace the old information in our mind with the Word of God.  This takes time, but the more serious we are about doing this, the faster it is done.  Why would we make the decision to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and not desire to change the way we think and the things we think upon?  Our body is basically a servant.  It too has habits that it is used to, some of them will need to be changed by our new spirit and our renewed mind.  Renewing your mind and disciplining your body is a project that is well worth your time and energy.  Use your new spirit, to help change every aspect of your life.  We are new creations.