`Regeneration." "Redemption." "Salvation." I'm thinking about the amazing process by which one who is a sinner finds forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul sums it up succinctly with his words in 2 Cor. 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" God takes the sinner, discards his sin debt and completely regenerates him (gives him new life.) This redemption (buying back) is made possible only because of what Jesus has done. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21).
During the 19th century Queen Victoria ruled England for decades. A popular monarch she was fond of going outside the castle walls to visit with the working people in the city. One day she and her entorage visted the refuse dump where the garbage from London was brought and sorted. Workers sorted out old dirty rags and sent them to a nearby paper mill. They explained to Queen Victoria that the old rags would be shredded, bleached and then pressed into the highest quality linen stationary available. Sure enough, several weeks later the queen received a box of beautiful stationary with her image cast as a watermark on it. An accompanying note explained that the paper was made from the dirty rags she had seen during her tour.
The Biblical metaphor is apparent isn't it? Isaiah said, "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). There is nothing in me that is good enough to deserve God's favor. Yet, because of Jesus that's exactly what I receive. I am redeemed. Renewed. Regenerated. Saved!
THAT'S THE WAY I SEE IT!
