| The New Man January 1, 2010 "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24) When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, He insisted that no one would ever see the Kingdom of God unless he was "born again" (John 3:3). The Greek phrase used by the Lord, gennethe anothen, literally is "born from above." Peter used a different word, anagennao, which stressed the need for a second birth: "Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23). This "new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17) requires a supernatural work that changes death to life (John 5:24)--literally, "having departed out of death into life." Although that supernatural change does not produce a new body now, it does contain a pledge of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5) that our mortality will be "swallowed up in life" (2 Corinthians 5:4). It is promised that "we shall all be changed . . . . For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). That event is yet future. What about now? Now, we can "reign in life" (Romans 5:17). Now, we are empowered to participate in the "divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world" (2 Peter 1:4). Now, today in this life, "we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). Our heavenly Father, having determined that we are "to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29), has made our bodies the "temple" of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and had granted us access to the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:20). Rejoice! Our New Man has been given sufficient supernatural resources for "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). HMM III
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