Day 22 – The Holy Spirit is Life; Lust is a Murderer

When you lust, you turn back to what God saved you from. You came to Jesus because that world had nothing for you. It still doesn't.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 – ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

John 3:5-6 – ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Titus 3:5 – ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel prophesied about the new covenant, promising that God would transform His people by giving them a new heart and His Holy Spirit within them. This divine Person would empower them to faithfully follow God’s word and law. Jesus established the new covenant, teaching that all must be born again from above. Born from Adam’s line, we are sinners, but through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit regenerates and renews us, uniting us to Christ.

Romans 8:9-11 –

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 6:11 – ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The new covenant brings the transforming gift who indwells all believers: the Holy Spirit. No longer defined by our lineage with Adam or our sinful flesh that is in his likeness, we are now defined by our union with Christ by the Spirit. Through Him, the Father and Son abide in us as well (John 14:16-18, 23; 15:26; 16:7). The Father, through the Son and by the Spirit, cleanses, sanctifies, and justifies us, declaring us righteous in Christ.