The New Man Spreads into our Mind by the Spirit’s Renewing
We are looking at newness, the new creation, and New Jerusalem in the New Testament. On the cross Christ terminated the old man and created the new man. This is an accomplished fact.
This fact has come into us at our regeneration but it has not yet been fully applied to our whole being. Therefor, we need to put off our former manner of life, which is corrupted (in God’s sight, even if it seems ok to us) and put on the new man with God’s righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22, 24).
The putting off and putting on are coupled with being “renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph. 4:23). This renewing is by the Spirit’s operation within us; it is “the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
The Holy Spirit is the divine person, washing and renewing us in the divine element to make us a new creation with the divine nature, that we might be heirs of God in His eternal life, inheriting all the riches of the Triune God.*
This renewing is by the Spirit but it requires our cooperation. We are “transformed by the renewing of the mind” in Romans 12 and this transformation depends on our turning our heart to the Lord and beholding Him in 2 Corinthians 3. By this renewing and transformation the Spirit works in us and with us to bring forth New Jerusalem.
* Part of footnote 5 on Titus 3:5 in the Recovery Version Bible published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.
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Posted by Don on May 17, 2024
https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/the-new-man-spreads-into-our-mind-by-the-spirits-renewing/
