Regeneration

That's what Regeneration is all about. It is a new life that God puts in us and sustains by His Spirit which gives us a desire to commune with God, to please God.

So when I was first saved, I had one desire, that was to commune with one soul in all the universe--The Boss; my Lord, my Dad. Guess what happened to the hermit? He began to break down. A hermit cannot commit to someone outside himself and still be a hermit. A hermit has to be alone, completely isolated. So God began to break that down by putting new life in me.

Do most Christians understand this? From what I have seen, I would say no. Many feel that they have made the decision for God; the average person walks down at a Billy Graham rally and thinks, "I have included God in my world." The exact opposite is true, of course, but they don't know that.

So as Christians, there are several points about Salvation that we need to understand if we hope to reach out effectively (in such a way that souls are healed). We have already discussed Justification. So lets look at Sanctification.

Look at Romans 6 (chapter 5 deals with Justification, chapter 6 deals with Sanctification). Romans 6:1--"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that Grace might increase?
May it never be! How can we, who died in sin, still live in it?"

This is an incredible statement. What has happened to the relationship between us and sin? It has been broken; we have died to it! Who I was has changed since I have experienced Christ's forgiveness and His new life! There has been a death here; the death is to sin.

When did I die to sin? When Jesus was crucified! Verse 3--"Do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus, having been baptized in his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him in baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too should walk in newness of life!" So when did I die with respect to death? When I became joined with Christ, in both his death and resurrection.

Who were we united with before we died with Christ? With Adam, whom as we remember, defected and united with the Devil (we were not united with the Devil in the same way that we are with Christ--we were simply thrown in on the Devil's side, whereas we are one with Christ). Before a man comes into Christ, he is alive to sin, he is alive to Adam; his spiritual heritage is from Adam.

What makes him dead with respect to God? "You were dead in your transgressions and sins." (Ephesians 2:1)

So what has Salvation done? It has given us a new heritage; it has caused us to be born again! We are born into a new family with new life! Before, we could say, we were "in" Adam; now we are "in" Christ! We've been translated from one kingdom to another kingdom. Our relationship with Adam has now been broken, in the same way that our relationship with God was broken when Adam defected into the Devil's camp! So we've been united with Christ in the resurrection so now, we actually have a new life!

Do you suppose I understood that the day after I came to Christ? No; I didn't understand that at all. Fortunately for God to save us such knowledge is not necessary. But if we are to progress in the Christian life and experience deep healing, such knowledge is essential! We need to know this, that we have been buried with Him! That's why it's so important to be baptized; baptism does not save you, but it is a sign of your identification with Christ. Once a person understands what baptism means, they ought to be baptized. I would postulate that most Christians in the first-century understood that baptism was reflective of their dying with respect to their old life, and a sign of being raised up to a new life (in a new community!). Most Christians today, I feel, do not understand any of this! They don't have the slightest idea of what baptism is; for most it's just a ritual, full of ceremony.

Romans 6:6--"Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Christ, that our body of sin might be done away with, might be rendered powerless, so that we can no longer be slaves to sin."

We can see the process of renewal here. What happened to us? Our old self was crucified with Christ. In the last chapter we discussed justification: Jesus was offered in our place; He died in such a way that I would not have to die, but could be offered forgiveness. This is what we know as a substitutional sacrifice.

Salvation, however, is a double-sided coin; justification is the top side. The bottom side of the coin holds particular significance for those of us in the West, for this challenges a whole mind-set that we have been raised under with respect to our understanding of salvation.

The bottom side of the coin is this: Jesus died in such a way that I died. This is known as a vicarious sacrifice. In the Chapter 5 of Romans we learn that in Adam, we all sinned and thus all died. Adam sinned as a vicar; he sinned in such a way that we all sinned in him. This troubles Westerners, because--for many Christians, anyway--we believe that life begins at conception. The Bible has a different view of when life begins. The Bible states that life begins in your father, and in his father, and in his father, all the way back to Adam.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the life of mankind--begun in Adam--split! A whole branch broke off, a branch that was no longer in Adam, but in Christ! A new race of man, a man that follows after God, not the things of the world came into existence. The other type of man still exists, known as the children of the Devil (John 8:44-48). But we are of a redeemed race!

Christ died as a vicar, like Adam. Romans 6:6 says He died in such a way that it could be said that I died. He was then raised in such a way that I was raised with Him to have a whole new quality of life. In Adam I was a hermit; in Christ I am no longer. I could not remain the way I was. Why? Because I AM different in Christ, and my fate is sealed.

Shortly after I came to Christ I realized that I was someone different. I didn't know who I was, but I knew that I had changed. Something inside had changed. Something that had not been there before had entered into my being. I had new life. And what does this new life do? It changes us slowly, over time, until we are no longer slaves to sin. This change may not be sudden; I was still a hermit the day after I was converted. Why? Because it was all I knew. No one told me any of this, so I continued to live like a hermit. However, I was no longer able to be at peace with myself living in the same way. Suddenly the old clothes didn't seem to fit anymore. Something had changed.

However, despite these changes, many Christians continue on in their brokenness for several reasons; we'll get into this in much greater detail later, but oftentimes it's because they're ignorant of who they are. Others may forget who they are; still others rebel against who they are; and others are confused about who they are. But we need to understand that those reasons simply keep people locked into their old ways. These things are often used by the devil into deceiving us that we cannot change. But if a person is truly new in Christ, they have a new life and a new being.

So here's a question for you: are you a sinner or a saint? Is a saint who sins different from a sinner who acts like a saint? Of course this is true, but what's the difference? The difference resides in the nature. When a person says "I am a saint," he is saying something about the innermost part of his being. If a Christian says "I am a sinner," he is lying, or is deceived. If he says, "I sin," he tells the truth. The difference is fundamental. Too many Christians think they are sinners trying to act like saints; they're trying to put on a mask, but start from a position of defeat. Too many Christians focus on their own effort to try and be something that God already created them to be!

For the Christian, is Sanctification based ultimately on what he does? The answer to that, fundamentally, is no! A legalistic view of the doctrine of Sanctification is based on what I do. At root, Sanctification is based on who I am, and that is due to God's grace. God can take a practicing homosexual and crucify him to the cross and bring forth a new man. That man may struggle with homosexual feelings; that man may even stumble. But that man, if he is in Christ, will no longer at root be a homosexual. I don't care if it's in the genes or learned behavior; in Christ they are new.

2 Corinthians 5:17: "Any man who is in Christ is a new creature. All things are passed away; behold, all things have become new."

New Christians ought to have identity crises; they don't know who they are! The day after I was saved, was I a hermit? No! Did I act like one? Yes. There's a difference between saying I am, and I act like. The Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ did not tell us to be what we're not. They told us to be what we are; act according to who are in Christ! Too often we act differently. We act like children of the Devil rather than children of God.

Sanctification, then, is in a way based on what I do, but what I do should be based on who I am. When I act according with who I am, I progress in Sanctification. A Christian is not a sinner trying to act like a saint. A Christian is a saint who, out of ignorance, confusion, deception or rebellion, may sin.

This is one reason I don't like the words “positional” or “conditional”. Whenever I hear a Christian say, "That's positional truth," I hear them saying that this truth is theoretical; it has nothing to do with them in reality. Their conditional reality is different from the “position” in Christ..

That's wrong. I am new in Christ; it has nothing to do with "position"; what in the world is that? The day after I was saved I was no longer a hermit by nature, even though I still acted like one for sometime after. God had to peel away years of actions, attitudes, in order to expose sinful, self-centered affections. I had to face my wrong views of God, myself and my fellow man in order to remove the barriers that kept me from acting like a child of God.

He is still working with many of those today. But deep in my heart, I wanted to please God. To those new in Christ, they will have an unquenchable desire to please God. Many Christians still struggle and have difficult time, because they don't realize that although they are new in Christ, they still many times don't act it. But with careful nurturing in revelation, repentance, and through restitution continuing around the cycle of renewal, they will enter more and more into the fullness of who God created them to be.

Often when working with new people in discipleship; I see them as a little flower bud. God's already put the life inside of them. My responsibility is to get those hard green coverings out of the way so that the bud can blossom. I don't have to force that person towards any kind of goal. God has already put the life in there; we just need to free it to grow. We need to have confidence and courage in that; so many Christians are worried that the bud might come out dead. If it is then there was never life in it and there's no sense in pasting on dead petals. But if it's alive, then we should have no fear, as we work and labor and struggle with people from one stage of glory to another.