When God gave you a new spiritual heart He did not repair or upgrade your old spirit chamber-part; He replaced it. Your old spirit is no longer in you, and therefore it cannot function in you.

Your new spirit is your spiritual and life center. It plays a critical role in your unification with God through Christ, and gives your new heart the capability to fellowship or relate with God in many ways, among them, to:

1. know Him (Ephesians 4:23; Romans 8:16;

2. worship Him (Luke 1:47; John 4:23; 1 Corinthians 14:14-16; Philippians 3:3);

3. love Him (Mark 12:30);

4. thirst after Him (Psalm 42:2);

5. follow after Him (Psalm 63:8);

6. communicate with Him (Romans 8:16);

7. bless Him (Psalm 103:2, 146:1);

8. wait on (hope in) Him (Psalm 130:5);
   

9. serve Him (Romans 1:9);

10. enjoy spiritual prosperity (3 John 2).
    

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
We are to fellowship or relate with God with our whole being, though through the heart’s spirit in which the Holy Spirit permanently and unconditionally resides.

God promised: “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26b, 27). Where did God place His Spirit? In the spirit chamber-part of your new heart. For the Holy Spirit is the source of your new life, and the spirit is the life center of the spiritual heart.

1. Just as the wild olive branch grafted to the cultivated tree receives life from the tree, your entire being receives life from the Holy Spirit.
   
   

2. Like a new wineskin made to contain new wine, your new spirit was given to you to contain the new wine that is the Holy Spirit and “things of the Spirit.”
   
   

3. Like a potter’s new jar, created to be a container and to reflect the glory of its maker, your new spirit was made to contain the Holy Spirit, and to reflect the glory of your Maker.
   
   

4. Like the Holy of Holies in the ancient Jerusalem Temple, your new spirit was made to be God’s new Holy of Holies, which He indwells in the person of His Holy Spirit.
   

All of this was confirmed by Paul in a letter to the Christians at Corinth. He wrote that God “gave us the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:22). He sent the same message to the Christians at Galatia: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts” (Galatians 4:6). Yet again, in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus, Paul shared the wonderful truth that the Spirit of Christ dwells in the hearts of believers (Ephesians 3:17).

Figure 8-1

God removed your fleshly old spirit and Adamic life (symbolized by Adam’s apple in Figure 8-1) and placed His Spirit (symbolized by the dove) within your new spirit.

The Holy Spirit does not dwell in the old heart of Adamic man. Consequently, Adamic man experiences emptiness, loneliness, sinful identity in Adam, a sense of unworthiness, and incompleteness. And so he strives to find meaning and purpose in life in an effort to bolster his self-esteem and to change his identity into something more acceptable to himself and to others.

When God resides in the spirit of a Christian, His presence can be the source of complete fulfillment; the believer never need look outside of the indwelling Spirit of God; He is completely and perfectly sufficient to meet all our needs. God said: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It is through the spirit part and the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit that the believer communicates with God. Romans 8:16 tells us, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit.” And John 4:24 informs us that “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

This does not mean that we communicate with God through our spirit alone, but rather out of the whole heart—united spirit and soul through the Holy Spirit. The thoughts of our soul’s mind are communicated through our spirit, with the intercession of the Holy Spirit, to God. Mary, mother of Jesus, spoke from a whole heart when she said: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46, 47).

Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also; I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also” (1 Corinthians 14:15). And if his prayers and singing were audible, then he also prayed and sang with his body.

A New Life
Let’s return momentarily to our story about Bob Morris. Prior to heart transplant surgery, he signed a release form. It disclosed all the risks associated with his upcoming surgery, including the possibility of death. By signing the document, Bob released the surgical team and hospital from any liability in the event he died in surgery.

Things were different with your spiritual heart transplant. The Great Physician guaranteed that you would die! But He also guaranteed that He would resurrect you from death into newness of life! God promised this to all believers. We have His word on it! And His promise was fulfilled in each of us when He removed our old spiritual heart and gave us a new one.

When God removed your old spirit, He also removed your old Adamic life. Then He gave you a new spirit, placed His Spirit in your new spirit, and through His Spirit imparted new life to you—Christ’s eternal life (Figure 8-2).

Figure 8-2

God did not repair your old life or upgrade it to eternal life. He exchanged your old life for a new life. Paul writes that, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). This new life of yours is holy and righteous, and has the capacity to love supernaturally.

Jesus promised: “I will give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). In another passage, Jesus indicated this life is imparted to us through the Holy Spirit: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

There is—and can only be—one eternal life. It is a life with no beginning and no end. It is Christ’s life. Had God upgraded your natural life or even created an entirely new life only for you, it could not be eternal because it would have a beginning marked at the time it was upgraded or created. Such a life might be everlasting, but not eternal.

Christ is Life
Eternal life is more than something; it is someone: Jesus Christ. He said of Himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life...” (John 14-6). Jesus is “the life”!

Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus, died, and his body had been in the tomb four days before Jesus arrived. Jesus said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25, 26). After proclaiming this astounding truth, Jesus called out with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43), and Lazarus walked out of the tomb!

It was the incredible power of the word of Christ that gave new life to Lazarus. And the same resurrection power and life are available today to all who believe in Him. The Apostle John quoted Jesus as saying: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes” (John 5:21).

In John 6:35 Jesus is quoted: “I am the bread of life.” He also said: “I have come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Peter called Jesus “the Prince of life” (Acts 3:15). John described Him as “the Word of life” (1 John 1:1), and testified that “Jesus Christ...is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

When God performed a spiritual heart transplant is us, He “made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4, 5).

John wrote that, as a Christian, you have the Spirit of Christ living in your spirit; you are united with Him and share His life: "And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:11-13).

What life? Eternal life! Whose life? Christ’s life! And His life is now your life. He lives in your new spirit, and desires to become functional in every aspect of who you are and how you live. Paul explained this to the Galatians: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

To have eternal life is to be “in Christ.” It is important to understand the full and rich meaning of the little word “in.” Translated from the Greek term en, it means position, in time, place, or state and instrumentality. To be “in Christ,” then, refers to our spiritual position in Him, our spiritual relationship with Him, and our ontological new state of existence in Him.

About 75 verses refer to our being “in Christ.” Another 130 mean the same thing, but use the name of Jesus or pronouns: “In Jesus,” “in Him,” “in Whom,” “in the Beloved,” “in the Son,” “In Himself,” “in Me,” “in the Lord.”

You were saved by His life
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians tells us: “by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5) and “you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

Christ’s atoning death came through God’s grace. God gave us faith so that we could believe in the truth and reality of Him and His grace.

But exactly from what were we saved? You will probably answer: “We were saved from our sins.” That is certainly true. And, in doing so, Jesus saved us from the penalty for sin. Romans 6:23 tells us what that penalty is: “For the wages of sin is death.”

Paul wrote of this to the Romans: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2).

Some Christians believe that the death penalty for sin will be carried out for all people on judgment day, except that Christ’s atonement qualifies believers for acquittal. But this is not exactly what the Bible teaches.

Spiritual death is not future; it is past. At the time of your first birth, the penalty of spiritual death had already been carried out in you. You were born with Adam’s life, which is spiritually dead. Forgiveness did not suddenly make you alive. What you needed in addition to forgiveness was new life. There was only one person who could give life to you: Jesus Christ. Imagine: All of mankind is born in need of new life, and there is only one life available: Christ’s eternal life.

Forgiveness covered the penalty for your sinful behavior. Your rebirth, new heart, and new life took care of your old sinful being.

Let’s review a little history.

God warned Adam: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16, 17). As you know, Adam disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. At that moment, Adam died spiritually because of his sin, and physical death followed many years later.

Through our crucifixion and resurrection with Christ, God removed our old Adamic life and replaced it with Christ’s eternal life. Paul writes: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

When you and I were born, we were born with Adam’s spiritual heart defect: spiritually dead, natural life. We were unregenerate. We needed life. And by God’s grace, He offered us life. By faith, we received it. Through our crucifixion and resurrection with Christ, God removed our old Adamic life and replaced it with Christ’s eternal life. Paul writes: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Just as light is the only thing that can dispel darkness, so too is life the only solution for death. So what saved us from death? Life saved us —Christ’s eternal life: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).

We were saved from death by Christ’s life; we share Christ’s life, and God intends for us to abide in Christ’s life—to function or live out of His life. God “made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4, 5), and He is progressively sanctifying us to experience the potential of who we are in Christ. But we will never become gods like Him. John 15:5 tells us that Christ is the vine and we are the branches. Christ is our source of life. And because we share His life, we are like Him. But understand this: A branch shares the life of the vine, but a branch is not the same as the vine. Sharing Christ’s life does not make the Christian the same as Christ in terms of deity or functional perfection.

Why Christians don’t have Christian babies
Have you ever wondered why Christians don’t have Christian babies? Since God removed our Adamic life and gave us Christ’s life, then why don’t our babies inherit Christ’s life from us? Why are they born with the natural life of Adam?

Adam’s reproductive seed resides in the mortal bodies of all males, and can produce only spiritually dead, sin-corrupted offspring. This is our first birth. But the imperishable or incorruptible seed of Christ produces holy and righteous spiritual children of God (2 Peter 1:4) who share His eternal life. This is our second birth.

Christ is the source of life for the Christian man because he has been spiritually born again of the seed of Christ (Galatians 3:16). In Peter’s first epistle, we read, “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). And who is the “living and abide word of God”? Christ Jesus! (John 1:1.)

Our first birth is of Adam’s earthly or fleshly seed; our second birth is of Christ’s spiritual seed. Jesus taught: “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:6, 7).

In a Christian man, the Adamic, earthly or fleshly seed of his mortal body remains with him, though it no longer is his source of life. And though a man is born again of the seed of Christ, it is the Adamic seed, not Christ’s seed, that is active in the human reproduction process. Adamic seed can produce only Adam-like, mortal offspring (Matthew 7:18). Jesus is the source of new life—not the man. So the man’s offspring can only receive new life from Christ.

At the moment of conception, God creates a unique spirit being (personhood) and places it in the fertilized ovum of the mother, but it is immediately separated from God because it is enjoined with sin-corrupted spirit, life, and soul inherited from Adam. This produces Adam-hearted offspring.

You Have a New Nature
Your new life gives you a new nature and a new identity. When God placed the eternal life of Christ in you, He made you a partaker of that life—one who could share it with Christ (Hebrews 3:14). And by virtue of sharing Christ’s life, you share the divine nature of His life (but not his personhood or deity) (2 Peter 1:4). Your entire spiritual heart is characterized by your new nature. No part of your new heart retains any aspect of the sinful nature you formerly had in Adam. That old nature was totally removed from you when you were crucified with Christ and your old Adamic life was circumcised from you and replaced with Christ’s eternal life.

Jesus taught this truth through the allegory of the branch and the vine (John 15:1-5). We were “grafted” to Him. He became our source of life; His life defined our moral nature; we acquired new identity in Him; and He produces “fruit for God” (Romans 7:4) through us.

This truth was also taught by Paul in his illustration of the branch cut from the wild olive tree and grafted to the cultivated olive tree. The grafted branch’s new source of life gives the branch a new nature—from wild to cultivated. So too does your being placed into Christ give you a new identity—from sinner to “saint” (literally “holy one”) (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 5:3; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2).

As a sinner, you could only bear “fruit for death” (Romans 7:5). Now, as a saint grafted to Christ, you can bear “fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).

A saint is sometimes thought to be a Christian of higher rank whole faith and works set him above the “common” Christian. But this concept is not biblical. All of us are partakers of the divine nature. Since we share the same life of Christ and are members of the body of Christ, we are equals in that regard (see 1 Corinthians 12). Furthermore, we are equally loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father, because His love is perfect and unconditional. There is no such thing as a “second class” Christian; we are all “first class.”

So we are equal in certain ways, but not the same: we are individuals with unique personhood created by God in His image.

Scriptures indicate that all Christians are saints by virtue of being in Christ. You are a saint because you share God’s holiness (Hebrews 12:10). God sanctified you; He chose you and set you apart from the world, and made you a holy person—a saint.

Paul writes that, “if the root be holy, the branches are too” (Romans 11:16). Jesus is our holy root, and we are His holy branches, sustained by His life, and characterized by His divine nature.

In 2 Peter 1:4, we read that God “has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature.” To be a “partaker” of the divine nature means that you share Christ’s divine nature. This makes you holy and righteous. Indeed, you are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), and “this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Romans 3:22, NIV).

Righteousness is something you could never attain for yourself, out of your own efforts. Natural people are not sinners because they sin; they sin because they are natural-born sinners. And Christians are not saints because they behave righteously or even religiously; they are saints because they are born again of Christ’s righteous seed.

You Have a New Identity
Self-image and self-esteem are buzz words in modern society. High importance is placed on perceptions of who we are: self perceptions, perceptions by others, and, for many, perceptions by God. Who do you think you are? Who do you think others think you are? Who do you think God knows who you are? And who are you trying to be?

When we want to know someone, these sorts of questions may come to mind: “What is your name?” “Where do you live?” “Where are you employed?” “What do you do for a living?” “Are you married?” “Do you have children?” “What are your hobbies and interests?”

Answers to such questions can help us learn about a person’s occupation, social standing, life-style, and so forth. But, at the heart of the identity issue is the matter of spiritual or life identity. Natural man’s identity is “in Adam” because he descended from Adam and possesses Adam’s life and sinful nature. As a Christian you are “in Christ,” and your identity is in Him:

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him (Romans 6:3-9).

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