What Happens at Salvation
The resurrected Christ, the man Jesus, is the prototype
of a “New Creation,” where now a born again man is a
spirit that has a soul and lives in a flesh body.
In the book of John, there is an interesting passage:
John 3:1-6 There was a
man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto
him, Rabbi, we know
that thou art a teacher come from God: for no
man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, “How can a man be born when he
is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s
womb, and be born?”
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The word to
be born, in the Greek is gennao and when it is
applied to a father, it means to “beget” (The mother
births a child but the father begets it by injecting his
seed into the woman.)
When you are “born again”, you are begotten of the Father and He “injects” an “anointed spirit” from Him into you at that time and you become a new creature.
Gal 4:4-6 But when
the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His
Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
The spirit from the Father for the new born Christian is
a “christ spirit,” meaning an anointed spirit
specifically for that body and soul with your name on it
(Benny’s christ spirit or Glenna’s christ spirit.)
Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Don’t confuse this with Jesus, “The Christ.” The word
”christ” in Greek means anointed, actually in the sense
of rubbing anointing oil on someone or something. Your spirit is
anointed to bring your soul to a place of maturity.
(He has instigated a path of maturation which he calls a
Path of Perfection, giving your mind the ability to hear
words of design from the Father through the Holy
Spirit. The word perfect doesn't mean to be without
flaws but to be mature, able to hear and understand.)
Your christ spirit is also anointed to receive giftings
and ministries from the Holy Spirit.
When we call him a "christ spirit," it is
in reference to being anointed, not inferring that he
is somehow taking the place of "Jesus,
The Christ."
After salvation, you no longer belong to the genealogy
of the first Adam in the garden but now belong to the
2nd Adam, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was made the
firstborn of the Father for the purpose of many others
to follow His footsteps. To be changed from a soul man
into a new creature, called a spirit man.
According to Dr. E. W. Bullinger, when Jesus said,
“Except a man be born of water and of the spirit,” we
misunderstand it to be two things. It is actually an
expression that should be translated as “water - yes,
spiritual water!” Jesus is emphasizing the need for a
spiritual birth, not to be born again as a fleshly soul
man.
Before Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, all
men were the same. They were soul men living in
physical bodies.
When you become born again, you become a “New Creature”, one that never existed in the Earth before Jesus made a way for us to be reconciled to the Father.
As a “New Creature”, you are a spirit that lives with a soul in a physical body. No longer is the "you" that you know a soul man, but now the "you" that you know is "spirit man."
Your soul still has all the old memories and thought patterns that you had before you were born again,
but now your anointed spirit is perfect. He has never been subject to sin and never can sin because, he has the mind of Christ and is always subject to The Father’s will. (See God's Structured Plan of Design)
Your spirit, that one that contains the mind of
Christ, is now leading and guiding your soul on his Path
of Perfection (i.e. maturity). To be mature is to
understand the desires of The Holy Spirit and to walk
out the process He places before your soul. It
begins with the ability to hear the desires of the
Father as He speaks to your soul, it's time for a
change and there's More!
This is important to realize because we are still living
in a physical body and thinking with our natural mind.
Even after the salvation experience, your soul which was
born of flesh has a hard time understanding the things
of the spirit because he thinks with a soulish mindset,
but our spirit is perfect (mature, able to discern Truth
from lies.) He knows the things of God and begins
teaching your soul to be submissive to the desires of
the Father and to walk upright and to seek to understand
this “More” that is being continually presented as “Present Day Truth.”
1Co 2:14 But
the natural man (those
who haven't received Christ as Lord and received a
new spirit thereby being changed into a new
creature) does not receive the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
Being Born Again is Not the Same as Being Mature
Even as born again Christians, this is not our final stage of development. We are still in transition to the day when we will receive a “spiritual body” that will not be subject to the carnality that our present one is.
This spiritual evolution is one of God’s great promises to us. In that day, our mature soul will merge with our spirit and live in a spiritual body. Our physical body will die, along with the sin nature that has made our lives so miserable and kept us from outwardly living the way we know we are supposed to. We will be a totally new creation.
Right now, the only one who is living like this is
Jesus Christ which is why the scripture calls him “The
Firstborn of the Father.”
Rom 8:29 For whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren.
This is the scripture that describes the desires of the
Father that all men shall come to know Him.
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.