Posted by Thermionic [ 70.173.82.75 ] on September 29, 2005 at 01:20:13:
In Reply to: Re: Wow... posted by Thermionic on September 29, 2005 at 00:44:45:
Manualblock,
I was just thinking about something here, that I didn't really clarify the way I needed to. I'll at least try to, the best I can. I know I'm not the greatest writer that ever was! 
Another chief reason why the testimonies of those who have experienced the new birth seem so, let me see, "dramatic" perhaps, is that to them, the old life is now a whole lot worse than it is to someone who hasn't experienced it.
The Bible puts it this way, that you are dead in trespasses and sins. That refers to the spirit of man. The body is alive, and doing the will of the fleshy desires. The body is the vehicle of sin. But when you are born again, the spiritual, inner man is made alive, and the Spirit of Christ abides within, along with it. Now, the tables are turned. The body's willfulness to sin is dead, and the inner man is alive.
The spiritual eyes are opened, and fellowship and unity with God is achieved. You see sin for what it really is. There are many things that are sin that the natural man sees nothing wrong with. And even the things that most people who believe in God know he's not pleased with, they don't think too much about them most of the time. But AFTER you get saved, they will appear, well, as Paul put it, "exceeding sinful." You don't know what you were, until you're not it anymore. You don't know the weight of sin that you're carrying, until it's been lifted. When one gets saved, they see and know what a wicked thing sin really is, and that's why they are so adamantly testifying as to the wickedness of the "old" man. They now see it for what it is through the eyes of God, not as they formerly did in the eyes of a fleshly man.
Likewise, to the unregenerate it seems like foolishness why someone would (or could) be so excited about something that seems so foolish and blah to them. The reason why is the same as before: They've experienced it! People go to ballgames and races, jump up and down and clap their hands, yell and scream themselves totally hoarse, and generally act like idiots. Well, the redeemed have something that's far better than any ballgame, and they have a reason to get excited over it. And do.
There's an old hymn of the church that says, "I'm in a new world, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are new, ever since that happy day. Well he opened up my blinded eyes, and then I had a great surprise. I'm in a new world, since the Lord saved me."
The person who penned those words described it about as accurately as I've ever heard it put. You are literally in a glorious, new world. As I said earlier, if you could feel what I feel......
Thermionic
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