NEW CREATION
If you have
been truly born again you have a new and holy nature, and you are no longer
moved towards sinful objects as you were before. The things that you once loved
you now hate, and therefore you will not run after them. You can hardly
understand it but so it is, that your thoughts and
tastes are radically changed. You long for that very holiness which once it was
irksome to hear of; and you loathe those vain pursuits which were once your
delights. The man who puts his trust in the Lord sees the pleasures of sin in a
new light. For he sees
the evil which follows them by noting the agonies which they brought upon our
Lord when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Without faith a
man says to himself, "This sin is a very pleasant
thing, why should I not enjoy it? Surely I may eat this fruit, which looks so
charming and is so much to be desired." The flesh sees honey in the drink,
but faith at once perceives that there is poison in the cup. Faith spies the
snake in the grass and gives warning of it. Faith remembers death, judgment,
the great reward, the just punishment and that dread word, eternity.
To see the
world’s rebels turned into friends of God is, after all, a God-centered goal. It
looks beyond benefit to men. For in coming to Christ their hearts will be
changed. They will be made new men throughout. As friends they will do what
they would not do as foes. They will lay down their arms and raise their songs
of praise: they will worship their Creator. They will adore Him whom
they once despised. They will praise the Lord!
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
84.
If
conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions – if
he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was
before – then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely
imaginary.
C.S. Lewis
God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce
better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.
C.S. Lewis
A Christian
has noble aims which distinguish him from the bulk of mankind. His leading principles,
motives, and desires are all supernatural and divine. Could he do as he desires
there is not an angel before the Eternal Throne, that
would excel him in holiness, love, and obedience! He would tread in the very
footsteps of his Savior, fill up every moment of time in His service, and
employ every breath in His praise!
John Newton
Letters.