How can you connect with the Bible?
2 Corinthians 5:17 is often highlighted by many resources, but the verses around this explore the Ministry of Reconciliation.
These verses connect us to how we're born into the world naturally and biologically, but to enjoy eternal life with God we have to be reborn spiritually, by which we become new creations. Theologians refer to this new birth as regeneration. When God regenerates us, we not only begin with a "clean slate" in relation to our sin and guilt, but we also become a vessel of Christ's life through the Holy Spirit.
How can you apply the Bible to your life?
Although the new birth is a transformative experience—literally, a new you—Scripture also teaches that becoming like Christ is a lifelong process and that along the way we will all "stumble in many ways" Thus, we should follow Paul's example and when we stumble or fall, pick ourselves up, and forget "what is behind and [strain] toward what is ahead" (Philippians 3:13).
As Dr. Mohler says in the NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible, "each Christian must maintain the degree of maturity that God has already granted, relying completely on Jesus' blood and righteousness while energetically pursuing holiness in the strength of the Holy Spirit."
