READ: Eziekel 36:22-28
“…that which is born of the Spirit is spirit“ – John 3:6
The difference between Christianity and every other religion is simple. Christianity claims to change the essential nature of a man.
Jesus makes you a new creation. You become a brand new creature with a brand new heart. In the Old Testament, the prophets predicted that the day would come when God would take out the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).
When a man is in Christ, he is a new person. He is regenerated. He is born again. When we speak of being born again, we do not mean going into your mother’s womb again. It is your spirit, the inner nature, that is born again. There is a rebirth of the human spirit.
Outward change is not the answer. Obeying a set of rules does not change your heart. Coming to Christ and being born again is what affords every man the opportunity to have a new heart. If you take a pig and wash it, bathe it and dress it up in a wedding suit, all you have is a dressed-up pig. This same pig will return to the filth which it is used to because that is its essential nature.
I believe with all my heart that it is only a change in the unsaved nature of a man that can bring about a change in this world. New Year’s resolutions and obeying rules do not change anything because the spirit of the unsaved man is dead and desperately wicked. The only hope for a dead and wicked human spirit is the miracle of rebirth in Jesus Christ.