ICS Daily Devotions
Given A New Heart
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
God has put His law in our inward parts and written it on our hearts through the new birth or born-again experience. It does not refer to a new heart physically but that our spirit being is new. The “new man” on the inside of us has the nature of God in the new creation. This new creation is no longer self-centred but God-centric. We have a clean and cleansed conscience as it was washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are very sensitive to the Holy Spirit due to the cleansed conscience.
We can love unconditionally if we yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, because this new creation has fully understood that the unconditional love of God is gracious, merciful, forgiving, kind, good and has self-control. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident in the person’s life, even though it will take some time to deal with the flesh which still wants to retaliate at times. However, the fruit will be more evident if the person chooses to allow the Lordship of Christ to dominate their life and the Holy Spirit to prompt them regarding how to behave and react. This is especially true when we are placed in situations where we can either react in the flesh to retaliate or choose to seek peace through forgiveness. Godliness is evident in a person when they have self-control over their emotion and do not allow it to get the better of them.
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NKJV) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The Holy Spirit lives in us the moment we receive Christ into our lives. He will lead and guide us to live out the new life in Christ.
There is a big difference between Old and New Covenant living because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, or the born-again experience with the new creation, and having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It is the fulfilment of the prophecy given through Ezekiel 36:26-27, and it is an enabling to do what the people in the Old Covenant could not do. We don’t need to live in misery and condemnation because we can have the new life in Christ through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, there should be a progressive change in our lives, especially in the area of loving God and loving people. We should be able to love, forgive and extend grace to others. People who know us well and have not seen us for a while should be able to see the transformation in us. We ought to have progressively changed from being an aggressive, contentious person to a peace-loving and gracious person, with our behaviour and conversation showing forth the Agape love of God.
How to love?
