We are made new creatures through regeneration. God is the only one who can make this change. This devotion looks at how regeneration is both instantaneous and an ongoing process.
Nuggets
- Regeneration comes after repentance from sins.
- Learning about Christ is getting to know Him as our personal Savior.
- God gives us free will to choose Him or not.
Paul said in II Corinthians 5: 17 that we are “… a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (II Cor. 5: 17 CSB). He can say that because of the regeneration.
Let's Put It into Context
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3: 5 NASB)
Oh, no. Two more churchy words. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. It is where God breaks Satan’s hold on us.
Only God has the power to do that, and He only does when we admit our sins, believe on Jesus as Redeemer, and confess God as Sovereign Lord. The admitting of our sins should include repentance.
Repentance is expressing sorrow for things we’ve done wrong. But it is not just feeling sorry for doing those things. It is making the commitment to changing ourselves as led by the Holy Spirit and accomplished by God so that we no longer do the wrong things.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He told Nicodemus “…I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again” (Jn. 3: 3 GNT). Yes, Nic was scratching his head, trying to figure out what that really meant.
No, we don’t know how that is actually accomplished. Yes, it can — and does — happen. “… With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19: 26 NKJV).
What Paul is talking about here in Ephesians is what happens when we are regenerated. Remember, he just got off of a couple of verses chiding some of the Ephesians for going back to their sinful nature. Let’s see what he says next.
Regeneration, Then Learning
“You did not so learn Christ! — assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4: 20-21 RSV)
After getting on the Ephesians for going back to the dark side, Paul reminded them “that was not what you learned about Christ!” (Eph. 4: 20 GNT). They were taught that regeneration comes after repentance from sins.
Regeneration is the change in us that God brings. Unfortunately, God doesn’t zap us, and we get changed all at once. We have to work out our salvation (Phil. 2: ##).
The Disciple’s Job Description
To access the complete job description, click the button below.
Job Duty #1
Be a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12: 1-2)
This is what the Ephesians — and we — have been taught. We have to change everything that is a sin. Everything that is not in line with how God wants us to live has to be changed.
We can’t do that on our own. Only God can accomplish that.
Learning about Christ is getting to know Him as our personal Savior. We have to learn Who He is and how to imitate Him. We do that by seeking Him.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17 NLT).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3 ESV).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16 ESV).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11 NLT).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11 NLT).
To read Has God Provided Everything We Need?, click the button below.
The good part is, when we truly seek Jesus, He will reveal Himself to us. We won’t be seeking in vain.
When we seek Jesus, we are learning the truth. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NASB). Learning His Truth makes us want to change.
Let’s look at it this way. When we are seeking, we are looking to be taught. That means we want to learn. When we learn, we change to how God wants us to be. Our goal is to be more like Christ.
That goal is attainable. We can become more like Christ here in this life.
When we get to the eternal life part, we will be like Christ. “My dear friends, we are already God’s children, though what we will be hasn’t yet been seen. But we do know when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is” (I Jn. 3: 2 CEV).
We Choose Regeneration
“Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4: 22 RSV)
It is all about our choice. God gives us free will to choose Him or not. Yes, we will be infinitely better off choosing Him, but He still gives us the option to chose what is harmful to us.
Oh, yes. It is more difficult than changing our outfit. Keeping our thoughts and desires controlled is very difficult. Saying no to all the bright, shiny temptations can be painful at times.
But we get to choose to change our lifestyles. We choose to not follow the deceitful desires. So much in this world is deceitful. We chase after things we think will bring us happiness and security but end up being disappointed.
Instead, we choose to put our faith in the Creator of the universe. We choose regeneration. We look to Him to make the necessary changes in our lives because we know we can’t change on our own.
Regeneration and Renewal
“and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4: 23-24 RSV)
We’ve talked before about renewing our minds by seeking Him when we looked at Romans 12: 1-2. We also talked about how faith was in our minds. We have to reason it out in our minds – and then just believe – that there is a Superior Being in control of the universe.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Remember, we are talking regeneration — God brings about change. Our initial confession renews our relationship with God. God restores our relationship and makes us spiritually alive.
But God also knows we need renewal daily because we have to change our mindset. That takes time — our whole lives, in fact. It is a progression.
What does Lamentations 3: 22-23 say? “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lam. 3: 22-23 NLT).
What is mercy? Mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs.
Every day, God gives us His love in new, inventive ways to help us renew our minds. He wants us to succeed in making the change. He wants our regeneration complete.
Look back at Titus 3: 5. It says we are “… [renewed] by the Holy Spirit” (Ti. 3: 5 NASB). We have help.
I know what some of us are saying. God does the change. God gives us mercies every day.
We don’t have to do anything.
Wrong.
- We have to decide to turn our lives over to God.
- We have to study His Word and listen to Him to cut out the sin in our lives.
- We have to live morally as God would have us.
So, how are we made new? Since we are putting God first, we have new motives. We have different frames of mind, habits, and tempers. We think differently and feel differently. That is because we find our joy in Him, not in this world.
Making the Connections
We have to truthfully look at our lives and weed out all the sin in our lives. It is going to be a lifelong undertaking that may be painful at times. It is lifelong because God is probably going to work at them one at a time.
That might make us be disappointed at times. We may think the regeneration process needs to speed up. We have to be careful that we do not start counting what all we have given up, making sure we have gained just that many good things. We have to factor in the quality of what we are receiving — a relationship with and protection of the Father, blessings we would not otherwise received, and eternal life.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
How Do We Apply This?
There are several things we can do when we are doing our self-evaluation. We can ask ourselves these questions:
- What sin(s) is/are present in our lives that we don’t hate as we should?
- What weakness(es) are present that can trip us up?
- What do we have to do to conquer sinful tendencies?
- What is our action plan to address what we found?
We need to learn to find the joy of the moment. We tend to say that we will be happy when something is completed. Instead, we need to find the joy in completing it.
As with salvation, regeneration is an immediate and daily occurrence. We are immediately saved when we confess Jesus as Lord. But then we have to work out our salvation and regeneration.
Don’t worry, God will be there guiding us every step of the way.
Father. You make us new when we invite You into our hearts. No, Lord, we don’t understand how, but we are so thankful You do. Then comes the hard part — regenerating and renewing our minds every day. Help us through the process. May we always keep our eyes on You and live as You have called us. Amen.
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.
Pingback: How Are We Supposed to Live? – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: How Do We Imitate God? – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: Why Are We to Stick in the Light? – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: Do We Have to Understand God to Love Him? – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: How Do We Let the Spirit Lead? – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: How Are Disciples Pure in Heart? – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: Prayers of Forgiveness from the Cross – Seeking God with Elaine
Pingback: Growing Our Soul – Seeking God with Elaine