The New Birth

Through Jesus Christ the soul is taken out of the flesh, the body of death, and placed in the Spirit of Life.

St. John 5:24

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

I John 3:14

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Colossians 3:3-4

3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

The body is dead because the life it once had is now hid with Christ in God. Therefore, Christ is now the life of this flesh. The body of death belongs to Christ. He paid the price for it. Paul continues to explain this operation in the next verses.

Romans 8:10-11

10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Notice that in the 10th verse, he states, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;. . .” However, verse 11 says, if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, . . .” Now the “Him” here is God the Father, and the Spirit of God is the Holy Ghost. So, if the Holy Ghost dwells in us, then He, (God), who raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken or bring our mortal bodies back to life by the Holy Ghost who dwells in us. God has quickened this body to life so that it can serve Him. It does not belong to us anymore.

I Corinthians 6:19-20

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

You need to continue to follow closely this operation of God. In order to bring salvation to man, he first had to be judged a sinner. Now, to achieve reconciliation, the penalty for sin must be satisfied. Therefore, as many as received Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins, were baptized into His death, that they may also rise in the newness of His resurrection.

Thus the Old Man is crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin, or rather the sins of the body might be destroyed. Now the body and the seed of God remaining in it being sanctified by the Spirit, becomes a holy vessel ready and able to serve the Lord. This is the parable of the new wine being poured into new bottles. “All things become new, and all things are of God.”

Please do not get lost here as it relates to your personage before regeneration. Consider (reckon) it as dead.

Romans 6:7

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Our bodies are now free from the motions of sin, in that it is alive unto God. The Spirit of Life has created a higher law that works in the body than the Law of Sin and Death. That Law of the Spirit has enabled the innerman to live free from the desires, emotions and dictates of the flesh. The body is now the temple of the Holy Ghost. However, the unrenewed mind of the flesh will war against the Spirit that brought it back to life.

Galatians 5:16-17

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulful the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

The flesh (body) lusts against the Spirit. In doing so, it also wars against our soul. However, the Holy Ghost also wars against the flesh, so that if the Spirit were not dwelling in us, we would not be able to do the things that we do. Therefore, we must reckon or consider the body that once belonged to us as dead, but alive unto God.

Romans 8:12-13

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

WE OWE THE FLESH NOTHING! It no longer has any rights. It is the living sacrifice that we must offer to God in order to prove what is the acceptable will of God.

By walking in the Holy Ghost, we can mortify or cause to be put to death the deeds of the body. Walking in the Spirit will cause the actions, practices, affections, works and wants of the flesh to exist no more. Walking in the Spirit totally destroys the influence of the flesh. This is the liberty of the Sons of God. We are not debtors to the flesh. We can live without its emotions and desires. This is the mystery of godliness that was hid in God. This is the mystery that the patriarchs of old and the angels did not understand, though they desired to look into it.

Through the operation of the Spirit of God, the flesh is dead. However, it is only through the Spirit that the influence of the flesh is mortified. We must walk in the Spirit, or our bodies will control the destiny of the Sons of God.

The born-again experience moves the innerman out of the flesh into the Spirit of God. He now lives in the Holy Ghost. Therefore, He is no longer the life of the flesh. Therefore, the Old Man is and remains crucified with Christ. He, the innerman, is baptized into Christ, thus creating a New Creature. This New Creature is created in the image of Christ, having the nature and mind of Christ.

Nevertheless, the body of death is then sanctified and cleansed by the Holy Ghost, who also quickens it back to life for His purposes. Now the body is ready for the Master’s use.

However, there is one stipulation here. The New Man must be tried and tested. He must be approved of God and counted worthy of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, He, the New Creature, having now the mind of Christ as His Comforter, must choose to serve the law of God.

For as the Scripture has said, “He delights in the law of God after the inward parts, but He finds another law working in His members.” Now He, the New Creature, has the power to choose which law He is going to serve. He did not have that power before the new birth. He was held in the captivity of sin and death. But now the Law of the Spirit of Life wars against the Law of Sin in the members, so that we can obey the truth.

This is the test of obedience to God. We become servants to whom we yield our members, either to sin unto unrighteousness, or to God unto righteousness. When we walk in the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the mind of Christ, then the mystery of godliness is made manifest.