Author: Jay Lehman

A New Heart

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you received a NEW HEART.

Just like your new creation, your new heart is not a remodeled or improved or cleaned up old heart.  As Watchman Nee writes in The Normal Christian Life, “The heart, God says, is ‘desperately sick’, and He must do something more fundamental than cleanse it; He must give us a new one.”

You have a new heart that is soft toward God; a new heart with God’s ways written upon it.  Never let a minister, preacher, or teacher tell you that you have a “deceitful and desperately wicked heart” (Jer 17:9).  It is not true.  That wicked old heart is long gone.  In fact, your new heart is literally the repository, the fuel, the energy, for your righteous living.

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”   Ezekiel 36:26.

“I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”   Jeremiah 31:33

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”   Luke 6:45

A New Identity

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you were given a NEW IDENTITY.

You are now identified as a child of God.  This is who you are.  And as God’s child, you are now called “holy and beloved”.  Your sinner identity is gone forever.

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are!”   I John 3:1

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”   Colossians 3:12

“Therefore from now on we recognize no man by what he is in the flesh.”   II Corinthians 5:16

A New Creation

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you became a NEW CREATION.

Spiritually speaking, you became someone who had not existed before.  You became someone completely new.  God did not remodel, redo, or improve the old you.  The old you is gone.  The new you is here.  The old you died with Christ.  The new you was raised to a new life in Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”   II Corinthians 5:17

“It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not.  What counts is that we are a new creation.”   Galatians 6:15

“We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”   Romans 6:4

A New Birth

When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you underwent a NEW BIRTH.

You are now God’s child.  Just like you cannot be “unborn” from your earthly parents, you are now God’s forever son or daughter.  You are now “born of God”.

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ “   John 3:3

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”   I Peter 1:3

“For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”   I Peter 1:23

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.”   I John 5:1

At Bethlehem …

At Bethlehem, Christ became God WITH us.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means ‘God with us’ ” (Matt 1:23).

One of most recognized names for Jesus that we celebrate at His birth is Immanuel, God with us.  The apostle John called Jesus’ arrival “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).  For 30 plus years, Jesus walked the earth as one of us.  He was indeed “God with us”.

At Calvary, Christ became God FOR us.

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

Look at those words, “on our behalf”.  Christ, who knew no sin became sin FOR US, on our behalf.  He took our place.  At Calvary, Christ died as our substitute.  He died in our place to free us from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin.  His death did something FOR us.  And His death did something TO us.  It made us a new creation the minute we accepted His gift.  It provided a pathway for Him to indwell us and live His live through us.  Which leads us to …

At Pentecost, Christ became God IN us.

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting…and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4).

The promised Holy Spirit arrived with incredible power 50 days after Christ’s resurrection.  The room and the inhabitants of the room were filled with God’s Spirit.  And believers in Jesus have been home to the Holy Spirit ever since; an indwelling that takes place the millisecond we believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit living inside fulfills a promise that Jesus made many times in the gospels.

“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (Jn 14:20).  “I in you” when speaking to the disciples.  “I in them” when speaking to the Father about us.  Christ in us by His Spirit.  May we all not only celebrate – but experience in our heart of hearts – this mystery of the gospel, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).