Weekly Bible Study

Summary of last Mondays Bible Study on – The New Birth in Christ.
Text: John 3:1-16

Introduction
The New Birth in Christ is not about a change of physical status, nor increase in height or change of skin, but a spiritual transformation that occurs in the human spirit, mind and heart. We believe that the change which takes place in a human life at conversion is very real.
The New birth in Christ is a necessary spiritual experience for any human who desires to be victorious over sin and the devil on this side of eternity.

Question 1
Explain what you understand by the phrase – The New birth in Christ?
The New birth in Christ is that personal decision a human while living on this earth makes to be united with Christ after hearing the Good News of the kingdom of God and becomes convicted of his/her sinful nature, which leads to regeneration and the coming alive of the human spirit that was dead because of sin.

Question 2
Our introduction says that transformation takes place in the human spirit, so does it mean that at New birth there is a change of spirit?
Yes there is a change of spirit because before the New birth in Christ experience all humans were under the control of the devil and his demons. But after the New birth in Christ experience, the devil and his demons are sent out from the human life and spirit and the Holy Spirit takes full control. In essence it is the spirit that gets born again.

Question 3
At the new birth experience, is there a merger between the spirit of man and the Spirit of God or is it that there is a complete replacement of the human spirit by the Spirit of God?
To use the word merger to describe what happens at the new birth experience is not correct, because merger is the act or process of merging two or more parts/things into a single unit. Spirits are beings without bodies and can only co-inhabit with the human spirit in the human body, but cannot merge with it. That is why they can also leave and the human life continues.
The law failed because it didn’t have the ability to recreate the dead human spirit, so sin and the devil still held sway. The death and resurrection of Christ did not only defeat the devil and sin but paved the way for the Holy Spirit to be able to co-inhabit with humans as the only way to both recreate the dead human spirit in order to bring it back to godly spiritual living and to empower it to live the Godkind of life here on earth and to be victorious over the devil and sin.
The subject of complete replacement of the human spirit does not arise because nobody can live here on earth without first a human body and a spirit. If the human body looses the human spirit, definitely physical death has occurred.

Take Away Thought – Sin brought about an end to human life here on earth and eternal punishment with God, but the new birth in Christ brought about an endless life both here on earth and in eternity with God. Shalom.