....”change in behavior that occurs when one becomes a new creature in Christ”....
Very important statement Metmom. I think as Christians we can look back to how we saw life overall after our Salvation. I think for me it was an immediate sensitivity to the things of God, and equally of sin when faced with it myself or hearing and seeing it in others. You could identify it as never before.....where the “little sins” could easily be ignored as unimportant, if that, suddenly roared!
Certainly this is the work of God’s Spirit, now in us instead of outside, but I really didn’t understand this so young in my walk with Him. Even so, I definatly saw a huge change in how I viewed pretty much everything....and this without “trying to do” anything other than seek a closeness with Jesus.
I think when we see the world and life through His eyes and His mind and heart...all things change....we do indeed become a new creature....and that has nothing to do with anything at all we do.
As I read that statement I thought of being in a very dark room.Seeing only dark shadows and shapes,bumbling slowly around objects real and imagined and suddenly the light comes on.
Simplistic I know but vivid nonetheless.
the thing that I remember that hit home with the most impact early on in my spiritual life was when I first heard Christmas carols as a new Christian.
I got saved in August. So that first Christmas when we pulled out the album of Christmas carols that we listened to EVERY YEAR (part of our family tradition) and I heard those long familiar lyrics, I was BLOWN AWAY. I listened to them in awe, like I was hearing them for the first time wondering how I had ever missed what I was hearing now.
*born to give them second birth*, *God and sinners reconciled*.
Just wow. How did I ever miss that?