“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11, KJV 1900)
Some of you will understand this when I say that every person is born dead. Now they may be alive in the flesh, but they are still spiritually dead. We were all born in sin. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, telling them this truth, that they were dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-2). Yet, by God’s grace, those who were once dead, were made alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5). It is a fact that all who were born were born dead. And only those who were born again now have been made spiritually alive.
What is this new life? It is the abundant life of which Jesus spoke when he said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10, KJV 1900) The word abundantly, perissos, refers to something being beyond measure. The abundant life that Christ has given us exceeds anything we knew before our salvation.
In 1983, the Lord saved me while I was reading a Gideon Bible in a hotel room in Minneapolis Minnesota. That evening a miraculous transformation occurred in me by the working of God’s grace. It was a marked difference. The first thing I remember was having great joy and peace, like I never had before. My desires changed that night. Rather than living for the things of the world that I had previously valued, I now wanted to seek to understand the word of God and His will so that I might be a blessing to others.
What can explain the change? Nothing of my own doing, I can tell you that much. It is what Paul spoke about in verse eleven. The Spirit of God has given me abundant spiritual life now with the guarantee of a future resurrection of the body.
Renewing the Heart 