When the Holy Spirit makes someone a new creation in Christ, then the old is gone and gone for good, and everything becomes and remains wonderfully new. That newness is both fundamental and incremental, for a new heart means a new life. There is new faith, new hope, and new love. From the new heart flows an entirely different way of life, no longer dominated by sin and death: there are new appetites, new friends, new guidance, new attitudes, new battles, new standards, new commitments, new labours, new resources, new pleasures, new motives, and new goals—a life of combat with sin and labour for the Lord.
In the words of Joseph Hart:
How strange is the course that a Christian must steer!
How perplext is the path he must tread!
The hope of his happiness rises from fear,
And his life he receives from the dead.
His fairest pretensions must wholly be wav'd,
And his best resolutions be crost;
Nor can he expect to be perfectly sav'd,
Till he finds himself utterly lost.
When all this is done, and his heart is assur'd
Of the total remission of sins;
When his pardon is sign'd, and his peace is procur'd,
From that moment his conflict begins. |
#16 - Top Played Video (48-Hours) week of 10/15/2024
