Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Our sins are forgiven, the judgment is satisfied, and we are set free.
Paul teaches in Galatians 3 that the purpose of this sacrifice of Jesus for us, is that we might receive the blessing of Abraham! That is the imputation of righteousness by faith, and apart from the works of the law. Christ is the promised seed of Abraham, He is the One Who blesses all the world!
But Paul adds that another purpose for Christ being made a curse for us to redeem, us, is that we might receive the promise of the Spirit of God by faith.
The Lord Jesus declared to Nicodemus that unless a man is born of the Spirit, he cannot see, nor enter into, the kingdom of God.
This is being born again, or regeneration. Jesus did not teach that we are reborn by the Spirit a second time, but rather, that having been born of the flesh, we must be born a second time by the Spirit, or we cannot be saved from wrath.
Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is not something we can do, or cause to occur. Rather, it is, like our physical birth, something that is done TO US; it is imposed upon us by the Spirit of God.
It is a mysterious work of the Spirit of God. To us, it is completely unpredictable. Nobody can tell how or why God chooses who to make alive by the Spirit. It is like the wind, Jesus tells us, that blows which ever way it wishes, and we cannot control it ourselves.
Paul sets forth this startling truth: no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost.
Paul isn't speaking merely of mouthing those words, but rather, of believing them and submitting to Christ as Lord. |
