A testimony of Christ in the heart

Those who are not truly saved will not be able to comprehend the miracle of the rebirth that God performs upon the one whom He is saving. Jesus himself said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”

The scriptures are very clear concerning those who have been saved, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The Apostle John further adds, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Here I must be very clear. This is not speaking of perfectionism, for no one born of the seed of man can be perfect. Instead, it is about an internal transformation of the heart that seeks God’s glory instead of its own. For the scriptures tell us, “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

Paul conveyed this to Titus, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. With the same understanding, the Apostle Paul also penned, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

True biblical teaching upon the subject of salvation is very clear from the study of the scriptures, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”And in the book of first John it also says, ‘The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.’” To further understand the power of salvation, the word “believe” in the scriptures carries the ideal of a deep conviction in the heart which is being influenced by a certain inner and higher prerogative of the soul. In other words, it is the supernatural power of God that affects the heart to call upon Jesus for salvation.

My reason for saying this is that the rational logic of human thinking would not permit such a thought. The word of God confirms this as well, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

Octavius Winslow penned hundreds of years ago, “A believer’s experience of the truth of God is no mere fancy. However, severely experimental godliness may have been stigmatized by an unrenewed world as the offspring of a morbid imagination or the product of an enthusiastic mind.”

In other words, the believer who has been genuinely saved has a sense of sin, brokenness, and contrition before God. He has an unmovable faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ which is accompanied by an awareness of pardon, acceptance, adoption, and joy in the Holy Ghost. These are no mere hallucinations of a disordered mind, but rather the reality of one who has been saved by the power of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

May the Spirit of God awaken you to the reality of these truths, Amen.