Understanding Redemption (Part 3)

Part of God's plan of redemption for humanity includes God giving His redeemed a new spirit and making them a "new creation" on the inside.  What Adam lost Christ regained for us.  Religion can't change you neither can just forgiving your sins change you.  Humanity must be "born again" in their spirit.  We don't try to be a Christian, either we are or we aren't.  As a Christian we have the life of Christ within us and are born into God's family.  I want to share with you four aspects of redemption that are necessary for you to understand.

1.  When We Had Spiritual Death The Devil Was Our Father

The Pharisees had rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  When Jesus addressed them in John 8:44 he told them that because they refused to accept him as One who had come from God that they were of their "father the devil and the lusts of their father they will do."  Anyone who rejects Christ naturally has the spirit of disobedience working in them (Ephesians 2:1-3) and will naturally follow the spirit of their father the devil who is the prince and god of this world (John 14:30; 2 Corinthians 4:4).  When the devil is your father you don't care about spiritual things and you will follow the ways of the world.  But when you give your heart and life to Jesus, the life and spirit of God comes into you and changes everything.

2.  Jesus Conquered The Devil

Scripture tells us that God has given Jesus a name that is above every name and that at his name

every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).  There is no place in heaven, earth, or hell that any person or being does not recognize who Jesus is and that He is Lord. When we confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we become new creatures.  Salvation is simply the process of a person changing their God from the god of this world, to the God of heaven.  And as a result they pass from death to life and they never have to go back to the old life of sin.  They have been delivered out of darkness into the glorious light of God and are now destined to conformed to His image.  Part of God's plan of redemption is for us to be just like His son Jesus.

3.  The Same Power That Raised Jesus From The Dead Dwells In Us

When you are born again the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that raises us up from spiritual death and makes us new creatures in Jesus Christ.  If you are born again, you should see yourself as one that has spiritual life.  You are different from the world, because you have been born again. Living a moral life is not enough to get you to heaven.  You are not saved because you are a good person.  All of your righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God.  But when you are born again, you have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

4.  What God Thinks Of You

As a new creation God views you as "justified" and declared "righteous." (Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30).  Not only are you righteous, but you are free from Satan's dominion and power. When you are born again the devil has no spiritual or legal right to any part of your life.  As Christians we are no more of this world than Jesus was when He walked the earth.  We are in this world, but we are not a part of this world.  As a new creature you have all authority over all the power of the devil.  God sees you as more than a conqueror and you should begin to see yourself as God sees you!

Be thankful that God has redeemed you and given you a new life and a new spirit!  No longer tied to the spirit of darkness and death, but now a part of the spirit of light and life!

-- Pastor Temple