WE LEFT OFF yesterday saying that the unregenerate were “without form” and “void.” The last item is: (3) “and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The unregenerate are living in darkness and stumbling from event to event in darkness.
Then the miracle takes place: the Holy Spirit moves upon the face of this dark, empty purposelessness, and lo, out of the chaos comes cosmos, a new personality emerges, with purpose, with fullness, with light. He has a goal and power to move on to that goal. “The old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The basic human nature remains, but this false world of sin and evil passes away. The basic human nature which had attached itself to this false world of sin and evil is cleansed and comes back new. The self which had attached itself to selfishness, trying to make itself God, is cleansed of selfishness and comes back no longer dominant but subservient. Sex is cleansed of sexuality and comes back as creative activity; within the home it is procreation and fellowship, outside the home, creative activity on another level, creating new hopes, newborn souls, new movements. The sex urge has passed away as sexuality; it has come back as creative activity. The herd urge is cleansed of subservience to the herd and becomes fastened on the kingdom of God, and then it comes back as concern for society and its redemption.
The false nature of sin and evil passes away; the basic human nature remains—now dedicated to other purposes and other goals. They are new because they are dedicated to new goals with new motives and drives. This new creation is a miracle; it cannot be accounted for by psychological factors, for it takes a miracle to produce those psychological factors, directed as they are now, to a regenerated person. This can happen to any man.
O miracle-working Redeemer, may I be a miracle of Thy redeeming grace every moment of my life. May I not frustrate this saving grace, but give it perfect freedom in every part of my being. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The invasion of newness into the old habits, attitudes, drives—this is redemption.
