Create in Me a Clean Heart, 0 God

                                                    By A. W. Tozer

    Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,Except a
man be born again,  he cannot see the kingdom of God.
                                                                                                       -- John 3:3

         The miracle of the new birth was foreshadowed in the Old Testament record:
Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me.

         There was at least a hint of miracle within the human breast; not the reasoning
of yourself into a position, but something happening that could not be explained!

         Coming into the New Testament, there is no longer any hinting or suggesting
about the miracle of the new birth; it is boldly and openly declared.  Our Saviour
said that if we come to Him and are not born again, we cannot enter the kingdom
of God --- that we must be born from above.

         Paul told the Corinthians: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

         You couldn't make it any stronger than that! Some-thing happens in a man's
nature that no man can explain!

         Just the moment that a man's experience in Christ can be broken down and
explained by the psychologists, we have a church member on our hands -- and
not a Christian!

         For that which must happen in the new birth can never be explained by
psychology or psychiatry. The professional can only stand off respectfully and
say,   Behold the works of the Lord.  He can never explain it!

         And in that great and terrible day to come, many will be shocked when
they find that they depended upon a mental assent to Christianity instead of
upon the miracle of the new birth!

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 Yours in Christ,
  Paul N. F.