Daily Word

These two scriptures sum up the radical reality of salvation.

What does it mean?

To be created anew!

Salvation is the creation of a completely new man—a man just as God originally intended him to be—a man who has God’s own Spirit-nature as his fundamental nature: “true righteousness and holiness.”

When was this man created?

When Jesus rose from the dead!

He is in His person “the new man”!

In His incarnation, He descended into and clothed Himself with the old, fallen humanity in order to

get rid of it by destroying it on the cross.

Why then?

It was unsalvageable.

Completely corrupt.

Totally self-centred.

Full of hatred and rebellion against its Origin and Destiny.

Therefore, a completely “new man” had to be created: a man who loves God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength.

A man who hates sin and lives the same righteous and holy life as God: a Christ-man!

Salvation means union with Christ in His death and resurrection:

to die away from “the old man” and to be clothed with the “new”;

to die out of self to live “in Christ”, “the new man”;

to live the Christ-life instead of the independent self-life.

Have you received an inner revelation of this radical reality?

Have you identified yourself with Christ in His death and resurrection and consciously put on the new man?

Are you living the Christ-life – or are you still the same old self-centred rebellious man?

To become a Christian means to be created anew, a spiritual person, a Christ-person!