Whatever you call this moment of conversion, it is decisively the work of God — a new creation of God, a new birth by the wind of God’s Spirit, a mighty call of God out of the tomb of spiritual death, a divine choice of God out of the darkness of the world, in a divine union between us and the dying and rising Christ so that we walk in newness of life. Whatever this moment of conversion is called, it is the gift of a new nature, with a new gladness, in a new God, through a new gospel.
If God waited for us to bring this about by our so-called free will, it would never happen. Sinners do not create new life. Sinners do not bring themselves to birth. Sinners do not call themselves out of the tomb. Sinners do not choosethemselves out of the world. Sinners do not forge a union with Christ so that his death and his life are ours. This is the work of God bringing into being a new person.
And my point is that the most basic, most essential distinction between that new person — that new nature — and the world is not new decisions, or new deeds, or new doctrines. These are all necessary traits of our new nature. But they are not most basic and most essential. Most basic and most essential is new gladness in a new God through a new gospel.
