Outer marks of the new birth are new characteristics. Old things pass away. The fruits of the Spirit quickly manifest themselves in the outward life. Physical force is one evidence of physical life; thought and reason furnish evidence of intellectual life; so the fruits of the Spirit and then new spiritual activities of the transformed life prove the new birth. Other evidences are a change of companions, of pleasures, of interests. “All things become new.” What was previously loved, is now hated. Sins hitherto relished are not abhorred. Regeneration brings with it a new set of values. The outer change may be more conspicuous in some lives than in others. A person brought up in a Christian atmosphere, who has never journeyed into deep and horrible sins, but who was religious in his ways, will not, when he turns to Christ, exhibit the same transformation of life as a man who was degraded and debauched in life. But whether moral or immoral makes little difference. Once the new birth takes place in a person, good or bad, there are changes evident to all around.
Herbert Lockyer, All the Doctrines of the Bible, p. 182
1 comment:
:) awesome quote----and even better to have experiened the New life in HIM!
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