The Miracle of the New Birth

Transformed and Conformed: New Bodies

The Christian Believer is a citizen of heaven, rather than just the earth. We are declared to be ambassadors to earth! Our manual is the Word of God, which declares us to be foolish and "dupes" until converted to Christ with the indwelling Holy Spirit.
I. Living in "Tent City"

A. All men born in Adam die ...1 Cor 15:22; Heb 9:27…but made alive, only in Christ

B. All men born in Adam inhabit a body that is mortal or temporary…It is referred to in the Scriptures as a "tabernacle" or "tent"…2 Cor 5:1-10

C. But even while we are in this "tent" the promise of something better is alive in us!

Waiting for a permanent building from God, eternal in heaven
We are groaning in this current body cr. Rom 8:18-25
We desire for the mortal to be swallowed up with the immortal; our spirit leaving this tent is only one half of what we long for; we long to be clothed again with the new body (building)
It is the Spirit of God in us that is creating this yearning!
"We" are the spirit, the living, that is inside this tent. As long as "we" are at home in this tent "we" are absent from the Lord.
Death is actually the departure of the living spirit from the tent immediately into the presence of the Lord
To know this we walk by faith, not by sight
So our aim, our goal is to be pleasing to the Lord whether absent from or present with Him
We will all appear before Him at the Judgment (Bema) Seat to receive for the things done while we lived in this tent.

D. From other passages to the Corinthians we know this body is called the temple of the Holy Spirit …1 Cor 6:19-20

E. We know from other texts that that which is born in us, the new man, is holy, blameless, created in righteousness and true holiness, without sin and unable to sin, spiritual, understands the "things of God" (open communication with Him) in the power of the Spirit, without condemnation, pleasing to God, subject to the law of God, born of God and operates under a new and different law …Eph 4:20-24; Col 3:9-1; 1 Cor 2:10-16; 1 John 3:9; Rom 8:1-13

F. We know that while we are at home in this tent we still are being changed into the image of Christ …2 Cor 3:18 …this should bring great and unspeakable joy into our lives, …taking the long range view of the glory that awaits after the suffering on earth. But the joy is NOW.

II. The New Body
A. This tent will be completely changed …Phil 3:21

B. Our appearance, now unknown, will be "like Jesus" …1 John 3:2,3…in the resurrection.

C. This change is called our redemption, the adoption and will take place at the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ for us …Rom 8:23; Phil 3:20-21; 1 Thess 4:13-18; This event is called the rapture or the taking up (caught up…Latin: rapturo, or rapture).

D. This change is the swallowing up of our mortality into immortality …1 Cor 15:51-58

E. This change delivers us from the wrath which is to come in 1 Thess 1:10 and is one of the greatest of hopes that we have. At Edgemont Bible Church we believe this wrath to come is the Tribulation period which we hold is yet a future event since nothing like it has occurred on earth yet. Consequently, we call our position the pre-trib rapture position.

F. It is in this new body that we, the living, born-again people will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ for our willing submission to the Spirit’s new man in us or our disobedience while we were in the current bodies …Rom 14:4-13; 1 Cor 3:9-23;
2Cor 5:10

G. It is in this new body that we shall forever be with the Lord

H. The characteristics of this new body are not totally clear…1 John 3:2…but there are some things which can be known:
Our ability to know things is multiplied greatly to the point of knowing as we are known by God …1 Cor 13:12
Our cognitive skills are raised to the point that we will know people whom we have never met. Ex. The 3 disciples "knew" Moses and Elijah in the transfiguation.
It is incorruptible, glorious (shares the glory of Jesus …Col 3:4), powerful, spiritual yet visible and touchable, it apparently is not flesh and blood. …1 Cor 15:42-50

Rejoice, and again I say rejoice, for this is the Day that the Lord hath made!