Rushwavefrom the book Why I Love God
9: New Life Indwelt Me
I did not realize all God did the very moment I believed. That illumination came later as I studied the scriptures and time progressed. But when I trusted Christ He did much more than forgive all my sins. He also fundamentally transformed my very being. To use biblical terminology, I died, new life indwelt me, and I literally — quite literally — became a new man.
I did not realize it, but the moment I believed God supernaturally, instantaneously, and miraculously transformed my hardened, sinful heart. He indwelt me with His Holy Spirit, and I was radically changed. The life that animates Him; the eternal life; the life that is love and righteousness; that life was indwelling me. I felt no different at that moment, and outwardly I looked no different. I was not even aware of the radical change myself. But it nonetheless happened.
God’s fundamentally changing me was in keeping with His character and nature. I had asked the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful, eternal God to save me, and He would most certainly do it — He would most certainly do it. I had put my trust in Him, and no one who puts his trust in Him will be ashamed. And in keeping with these traits, God performed a radical, invisible, supernatural transformation of my very being. I had become born again; there was new life, eternal life, God’s life, indwelling me.
An analogy I can liken this to is that of a hand puppet. Outwardly everyone sees the puppet, but there is a hand within the puppet guiding all its movements. Before I believed, my body was like a puppet, and the hand inside was the old life; the life that is characterized by deceit and sin. But when I believed, my body was still that puppet, but that hand inside died. A new hand was put in; God’s hand. And it was He that was now at work in me. And just like a different hand in a puppet will cause the puppet to act differently, even so since the life of God was now animating me, I would necessarily act differently.
from the book Why I Love God
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