Harvey Files: Two Families Correspondence Course

“And God said, Let us _______ man in our image, after _________________. . . . So God ___________ man in his own _________, in the image of God ____________________” (Gen. 1:26-27).

Man fell and Satan injected his own evil nature into God’s creation─man. There had to be a restoration of man to that original pattern. God’s Word reveals the fact that Jesus died that our history in Adam might end. To be born into Christ’s family is wonderful, but the purpose of Calvary was to completely (not partially) undo the evil results of the Fall. It is very clear that God purposed that just as we were created in God’s image, we must be restored to that image as far as our spirit is concerned though body and mind must always suffer in this life from the effects of the Fall.

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did ________________ to be conformed to (to be molded into) the _________ of his ______” (Rom. 8:29).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all _________________________ in ____________ places in Christ: According as he hath ______________________ before the foundation of the world that we should ___________ and __________________ before him in love” (Eph. 1:3-4).

The Father Planned Calvary

God knew that man would fall. He planned for the restoration of man before He even created the world. This was the prime purpose of the Creation. A. R. Palmer said, “As far as we know, our world was created merely as a theater for the enactment of God’s great plan. The scientist, Wallace, says that the earth seems to be the very center of the whole universe; that as far as he can see, as far as science can tell, this is the only inhabited sphere.”
In order for us to further visualize the grandeur and magnitude of God’s plan for our restoration to the image of His Son, we quote from David Foot Nash. “The death of Jesus Christ was no accident. It was designed. Jesus was not maneuvered into the place where His enemies could get rid of Him. He set His face steadfastly to get there. No one dragged Jesus to His fatal rendezvous. He rode to it in kingly state. The foes of Jesus did not close in on Him. He closed in on them! The Son of God did not have His life taken from Him. He laid it down. He was no martyr. He was a volunteer. Jesus did not die to ‘resist not evil.’ He died to kill the evil. The Lord Jesus did not suffer death. He ‘accomplished’ it! (Luke 9:31). The death of Christ was not designed by man. It was far too terrible, too wonderful, too deadly, too life-giving for that. It was planned by what Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, called the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.”

“Him, being _____________ by the _______________________ and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands, have _____________ and slain: Whom God hath _____________, having _______________________________: because it was ________________ that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23-24).

“God timed this death. Even the timing of Christ’s death was something which He carefully reserved to Himself. The Jewish and Roman authorities had little to do with it. Indeed, they would have timed the occasion very differently, if it had been left to them. But it was in higher hands. All they could do was to fall into step with the Divine march of events. They had to act as it was ‘given them from above.’ The result was a miracle of synchronization whereby the death of Jesus coincided exactly with the Jewish Passover.”─David Foot Nash.

The Cross Aimed at the “I” in the Heart of Sin

“For this purpose the _______________ was ______________ that he might __________ the ________________________” (1 John 3:8).

The supreme purpose of God to make man in His own image could never be realized until the “works of the devil” had been thoroughly purged from man’s nature. Where these works have been destroyed, then only is man able to progress toward that ultimate goal─to be conformed to the image of Christ.
So we see that the plan of redemption involved a negative side─destroying the works of the devil, but also a positive side─that we might be restored to the image of Christ. “As long as we have the works of the devil in our hearts, so long is it impossible to fulfill the great purpose of our being,” said Canon Hay Aitkin.

What Are the Works of the Devil?

Surely they were not in man as he came forth fresh from the hand of the Creator. God had looked on all His creation and pronounced that “it was good.” In our former lesson, “The Seed of the Serpent,” we saw how the devil had insinuated his own evil nature within the very heart of man. It was an intrusion.
This intrusion is designated by various names in the New Testament: “The old man,” “The carnal mind,” “The flesh,” “Sin” and the personal pronoun, “I.” When inspired writers mention this inner principle of evil, they always associate it with a word signifying “death.” Is it “I”? The “I” must be crucified with Christ. Death is the sentence pronounced upon this vile nature.
The Pharisees’ conception of uncleanness or defilement was partaking of or touching some outward uncleanness in persons or things. Eating with unwashen hands was in their estimation “defilement.” Jesus showed them that the true evil lay within the heart of man.

“Hearken unto me _____________ of you, and ______________: There is ___________ from _________________ that entering into him can _________ him: but the things which ____________ of him, those are they that ___________________. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 7:14-16).

The disciples, when they were alone with Jesus, asked Him concerning the parable. Jesus’ answer is a classic, for He alone knew what was in man. We quote His word picture of the works of the devil which He came to destroy.

“And he saith unto them, Are ye so without _________________ also? De ye not ____________ that whatsoever thing from ______________________ into the man, it _________ defile him; Because it entereth not into _____________, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which ______________ of the man, that ____________ the man. For from __________, ______ of the heart of men, ___________ evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:18-23). (See also Gal. 5:19-21).

The Old Man Defined

The term “old man” was for many, many years but a theological term to the writers of this Course, but there came a day when the Holy Spirit revealed to us the fiendish nature which lodges in every human being. Let us notice how some writers describe this old nature.
The Church of England in its Homily on the Nativity, recognizes this inbred sin. “He (disobedient man) was now cursed and abhorred: instead of the image of God, he was now become the image of the devil, the bond-slave of hell, altogether spotted and defiled, he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin; and therefore, by the just judgment of God, he was condemned to everlasting death. Thus, in Adam, all men become universally mortal, having in themselves nothing but everlasting damnation of body and soul.”
Godet, a saintly Swiss theologian writes: “The expression, ‘our old man,’ denoted human nature such as it has been made by the sin of him in whom originally it was wholly concentrated: fallen Adam reappearing in every human ‘ego’ that comes into the world under the sway of the preponderance of self-love, which was determined by the primitive transgression.”
Gregory Mantle, a Methodist minister, says: “‘The old man’ is incorrigible and incurable; there is no mending it, educating it, or Christianizing it. It remains the same whether you treat it with encouragement or severity. Everything about it is hostile to God. It hates His law, and tramples it under foot. It hates His will and contradicts it. It hates His ways and refuses to walk in them. It hates His plan of salvation and refuses to submit to it. The ‘old man’ is offensive to God; it is impossible to please Him with anything that appertains to ‘the flesh’─a phrase which may be used interchangeably with ‘the old man.’ The seed of the flesh cannot please Him; the will of the flesh cannot please Him; the wisdom of the flesh cannot please Him; the glorying of the flesh cannot please Him; the confidence of the flesh cannot please Him; the warring of the flesh cannot please Him; the circumcision of the flesh cannot please Him. Whether ‘the old man’ appears in all his rottenness, or whether he assumes a religious and attractive guise, he can never be anything but offensive to God.
“Of all subjects, none is of greater importance than that of possessing an accurate knowledge of the character of ‘the old man,’ because of his power to deceive. He loves to put off his old ways, and calls himself a Christian. He knows how to cover his rags and corruption: ‘to make clean the outside of the cup and platter’; and to appear in a garb so devout and decorous that the very elect are deceived. Christ represents him as claiming, at the last, a life-long intimacy. He has sat with Christ at the same table; he has lived in the streets in which Christ has taught; by His name demons have been cast out, and many mighty works have been done. Yet Christ utterly disowns this religious ‘old man,’ and says, ‘I never knew you.’” (Matt. 7:22-23: Luke 13:26-27).

“Because the ________________ is ________________________: for it is _______ ___________ to the law of God, ___________________________. So then they that are in _____________________ please God” (Rom 8:7-8).

James Caughey, a Methodist evangelist, mightily owned of God, said: “Indwelling sin is Satan’s capital. He who has a small capital will keep adding to it. It is Satan’s investment, and he will not neglect it; the Devil’s stock and he will watch its rise and fall in the market, close as any stock-jobber. Sin is in itself an accumulating principle. A slight cold is prone to additions. It is so with indwelling sin. Its nature is to render you cold to duty, and cold in your affections towards God and His people.”
Dr. Rainsford says of it: “By ‘the old man,’ the apostle means our natural self, with all its principles and motives, its outgoings, actions, corruptions, and belongings; not as God made it, but as sin and Satan and self have marred it. The old Adam never changes; no medicine can heal the disease; no ointment can mollify the corruptions; it can only be got rid of by death.”
Controversy has raged within the Church among theologians concerning the time of this deliverance from sin. They recognize the fact that man must be made holy before he can dwell through the ages in the presence of a holy God, and they say that it is impossible to be free of this sinful nature. They fail to recognize that God planned to dwell with man in this life, and conform him to His own image here. A careful study of the verses applying to the ample provision of Calvary will show that it is not the physical death of mortal man but a death to the old serpent-nature which does not end physical life but results in a newness of spiritual life while still in the body.
John Fletcher, writing to refute the theory that we cannot in this life be rid of this evil within our hearts, says: “Ye directly or indirectly plead for the necessary continuance of indwelling sin in your own hearts and in the hearts of all true Christians. May I be so bold as to ask, who gave you leave so to do? And when were ye commissioned to propagate this unholy gospel? Is it not enough that this murderer of Christ and all mankind rambles about the walls of the city? Will ye still insinuate that he must have the citadel to the last, and keep it garrisoned with filthy lusts, base affections, bad tempers? Who has taught you thus to represent Christ as the keeper and not the destroyer of our corruptions? If believers are truly willing to get rid of sin, but cannot, because Christ has bolted their hearts with an adamantine decree, which prevents sin from being turned out; if He has irrevocably given leave to indwelling sin to quarter for life in every Christian’s heart; who does not see that Christ may be called the protector of indwelling sin, rather than its enemy?
“To plead therefore for the continuance of indwelling sin, is no better than to plead for keeping in your hearts one of the sharpest stings of death, and one of the hottest coals of hell fire. On the other hand, to attain Christian perfection is to have the last feature of Belial’s image erased from your loving souls, and the last spark of hell fire extinguished from your peaceful bosoms. It is to enter into the spiritual rest which remains on earth for the people of God; a delightful rest this, where your soul will enjoy a calm in the midst of outward storms; and where your spirit will no longer be tossed by the billows of swelling pride, dissatisfied avarice, pining envy, disappointed hopes, fruitless cares, dubious anxiety, turbulent anger, fretting, impatient and racking unbelief. It is to enjoy that even state of mind in which all things work together for our good. There your love will bear its excellent fruits during the sharpest winter affliction, as well as in the finest summer prosperity. There you will be more and more settled in peaceful humility; there you will continually grow in holy familiarity with the Friend of penitent sinners; and your prospect of eternal felicity will brighten every day.”

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name _________: for he shall _______ his people ____________________” (Matt. 1:21).
“There remaineth therefore a _______ to the __________________” (Heb. 4:9).

The Anti-Christ Committee

In every unsanctified heart, there are clamorous voices which demand a hearing from the born-again child of God whenever he is confronted with a choice to obey God. This has been illustrated as a committee which sits within the citadel of the heart demanding that we follow the course of this world. Every command of Christ to the believer is challenged. The committee argue in favor of man’s happiness here and now rather than for the eternal well-being of the soul or for the glory of God. “Be happy,” they cry in unison. “Be successful,” “Be popular,” “Be influential, “ “Be cautious,” “Don’t be in the minority.”
The reason why the new-born soul makes so little progress heavenward, is because the “want-to” of God is voted down by the “don’t-want-to” of the committee. The odds are loaded against him as long as he retains this self-enthroning committee within his heart. How many of us have not gone through the harrowing experience when God asked for obedience in some unusual way! “Don’t go too far,” “Don’t be brainwashed,” “Don’t ruin your prospects of friends, success and happiness,” “Be modern. All these old-fashioned notions are for man in a past age.”
We say without any question mark in our theological thinking, that God designed a salvation to rid the heart of this God-hating committee. He promises to purge our hearts and, when this is so, Satan’s voice may attack us from without, but his fifth column is no longer there as his ally. The all-powerful Name of Jesus routes the foe. Write out the verse found in Psa. 86:11.
____________________________________________________________________

The Old Man Crucified

In the 6th chapter of Romans, Paul mentions three definite steps necessary to appropriating to ourselves all the accomplishments of Calvary. We will state these three steps here.

1. Knowing. It is absolutely necessary to know what Christ truly did for us when He expired on the cross. Paul tells us. He informs us of a vital historic fact. Our “old nature” expired with Christ at the time of His death.

“___________ this, that _________________ is _______________________. That the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we __________________________” (Rom 6:6).

Every man, woman and child was included in that death. Potentially the entire world was included in that amazing death when Christ tasted death for “every man.” There is an old Negro spiritual which is entitled, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” One man told how he sat listening to a beautiful Negro singing that spiritual, and suddenly he saw that he had been there when they crucified the Lord. When the Holy Spirit reveals this to us it is a day in our spiritual history never to be forgotten. My old nature, my history in Adam was finished at the cross. I died when He died. I was “born crucified” but sometimes we go on for years before that intelligence dawns upon our benighted and dark understanding.
Some Japanese soldiers had been fighting in the jungles of one of the South Sea Islands during Word War 2. They had been too remotely situated to hear the great news that peace had been declared. The war was over, but there they were still living under dreadful conditions of destitution, hiding from the “enemy” during the day, and then stealthily creeping out with their weapons of war during the night. Then someone told them, and knowing altered everything. When the intelligence reached them, they had to reckon upon this truth. Can you imagine how from that moment everything would be altered?

2. Reckoning. Once we know that our history in Adam was finished, and we died with Christ, then we must reckon on that fact. We account the deed done. This reckoning is the appropriating faith which makes a universal truth for all become a fact and applied to us personally.

“Likewise __________ ye also ______________ to be _______ indeed unto sin, but ________ unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not ______ therefore _________ in your mortal body, that ye should __________ in the lusts thereof” (Rom. 6:11-12).

Many will say, I have believed that all my life. I have known that I was identified with Christ in His death on Calvary, but I have experienced no change. The priceless Holy Spirit must, must be the agent in our knowing and reckoning. He is the One Who executes for us and on our behalf all that Christ did for us on the cross. Our sanctification and deliverance from sin will be mere theory unless this mighty Agent is the Spirit of life Who touches our intellect and illuminates our understanding. But Christ sent Him here for that very purpose that He might instruct, enlighten and guide us into all truth. We can expect a personally conducted tour through the base regions of our heart right up to Calvary.
Paul said that he was not taught these truths by man but by revelation. Flesh and blood did not reveal these things unto him, but the Spirit of God. And he had caught the central idea of all Christianity when he said,

“I am __________________________: nevertheless I live: ______________, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Please look up the following verse and write it out in the blank space:
Gal. 5:24____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

3. Yielding is the third fact. Because we know we were there when Christ was crucified and have reckoned upon it, we now act upon it by yielding full obedience. As this third point will be dealt with more fully in a later lesson, no further comments will be made here.

Have You Attended Your Own Funeral?

Oswald Chambers says: “No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a ‘white funeral’─the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a ‘white funeral,’ a death that has only one resurrection─a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life; it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him.
“Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying─‘baptized into His death.’ . . . Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance─‘Yes, it was then, at that “white funeral,” that I made an agreement with God.’
“‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification.’ When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that ‘white funeral’ now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.”
─from My Utmost for His Highest.”

Only Unbelief Can Keep You Back

Unbelief robs us of the deliverance that Christ provided for all. If Jesus could do no mighty works because of unbelief in Nazareth, how is the Almighty One limited by a lack of faith in cleansing that small space within the human heart!
“Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause─the sin which could not or would not take God at His Word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world.”─J. Hudson Taylor.

Testing Time

1. Why are the fearful and the unbelieving pictured as being in the front of the procession listed foremost in the throngs on their way to perdition?
2. Why do you think Christ said to the five virgins in Matthew 25, “I know you not”?
3. Read the account of the Children of Israel in Numbers 21:5-9 and then read the words of Jesus in John 3:14-15. Why did Jesus liken the lifting up of the pole with the serpent to His own crucifixion when He was lifted up on the cross?
4. Think of the godliest person you have ever met or read about, and mention what things about him or her showed that the “old Adam nature” was dead or crucified.
5. Why would the evils mentioned by Jesus in the human heart keep a person from growing in grace?
6. Read the list of what comes out of the heart of man in Mark 7:21-23, and list which ones show the trend of immorality, and which show rebellion or bad temper, and which show a lack of truth.

Fill out the study pages and return them to: cc@harveycp.com . We will correct your paper and seek to answer any query that you might have respecting the lesson. We shall also be happy to reply to any other personal queries.

This course material is free and not to be confused with other material for sale in our Family Christian Store.

Correspondence_____________________________________________________
Environment _______________________________________________________

We might take a simple illustration from nature. A tree, when alive, is in constant touch with its environment. It is ever taking in from the air the carbon dioxide so essential to its own development. It utilizes the carbon and then sends out the purified oxygen into the atmosphere for the benefit of man and animal. Through its roots, it is continually drawing up moisture and then sending it out in an invisible spray from the many thousands of mouths located on the underside of each leaf. From the sun it draws in the light for its color and the warmth so essential to its growth and fruitfulness. Even the wind in early Spring is so useful to the tree, bending its branches and thus inducing the sap to rise from the roots where it has lodged through the winter. The movement of the branches brings the needed sap to the furthermost tips of each twig to feed the buds which are so soon to burst forth.
On the other hand, when a tree is dead it ceases to correspond with its environment─heat, light, moisture, air and storm. These same elements which minister life to the living tree, but hasten destruction and decay to the dead tree. This is the reason for so prompt a burial for the human corpse. The elements which before ministered to its life, now will very quickly cause deterioration and decay.
When God created man, He made him to possess two levels or two kinds of life. He was in correspondence with two complete and separate environments. Let us now consider these two environments.

1. The environment of nature. His eyes saw the beauty of the mountains and rivers, the glow of sunset, the grace of animal and tree. His nostrils sniffed the scent-laden air, and could discern between the perfume of flower and the aroma of grasses and fruit. With his mouth he could taste the abundance and variety of the fruit of the garden. With his hands he could handle and touch the various forms of animal and vegetable life. With his ears he could catch the murmur of the river, the cadence of the bird song, the wide range that the human voice was capable of communicating in speech and song. And finally his social instincts were satisfied by that other creature, so similar to himself and yet so unlike─the woman God had brought to him.
With life more complicated now than it was in the beginning, man corresponds with an infinitely wider world─the scientific world, the business world, the social world, the educational and political set-up. The prince of this world has seen to it that the seen world of which he is the ruler and god, shall be so attractive, entrancing and seductive that man shall be absorbed in material and passing things and so never desire to regain his lost environment in God.

2. The Divine environment. God had made man like unto Himself in one very important respect. He had created him a spirit. No animal could commune with God. With no mere beast did God desire to walk through Eden in the cool of the day. But God and man, as spirits, communed and walked together; they enjoyed each other’s spiritual company. God was literally the environment of man’s spirit. Adam and Eve could say as St. Paul wrote later:
“In him we _______ and _______ and __________________” (Acts 17:28).

To Adam there must have been no limit to the potential growth and expansion of his spirit in God. Thus we see that when God breathed in the very beginning into man’s nostrils, “man became a living soul.” He enjoyed two environments. He became doubly alive─physically toward this earth and spiritually toward God.
As a part of this higher spiritual life, our first parents possessed a power unique in creation─the ability to make a moral choice. God’s loving desire was that man should know and love Him, not because he was obliged to, but because he wished to do so.
In the accompanying illustration, we see man likened to a three-story building. On the lower floor is the physical body with its five gateways through which he, through the five senses, can communicate with his physical environment. These five senses he has in common with all animals. The animal can see, hear, taste, smell and touch and so can keep in contact with the physical world.
A very excellent Bible teacher, A. T. Pierson, explains this three-storied construction called “man.” “The body is lowermost, the spirit is uppermost, and the soul is intermediate. The body rests upon the earth of which it is composed; the soul is next above the body, as its animating principle and intelligence, using its bodily senses as its agents in the exploration of the phenomena of matter, and the bodily organs and faculties for its self-expression and communion with the outside world.
“The soul is shut in a dark chamber. It cannot explore eternal nature except through the bodily organs and senses. We may think of it as coming down to the lower level, to go out through these sense gates for purposes of exploration and observation; then, as returning to its secret chambers (on the second floor) for the elaboration of sense impressions.

Death to God

“Sin closed all the windows and darkened all the chambers of the spirit, and it became as a death chamber, until the Lord once more breathed into this chamber of death His own life-giving Spirit, and once more flooded it with divine illumination and pervaded it with vitality.
“Had man remained innocent of evil and loyal to God, he would have had open doors of access to heavenly chambers of mystery. But sin closed all windows of the spirit and darkened and blinded the spirit’s facilities; so that all conceptions of higher verities became dependent upon physical observation through the senses, and physical processes of reasoning. This we take to be the real teaching of such marvelous chapters as 1 Cor. 2.”

“But the ___________ man receiveth not the things of the _________ of God: for they are _________________________: neither can he _______ them because they are ___________________________” (1 Cor. 2:14).
“______ hath not seen, nor ______ heard, neither have entered into the _________ of man, the things which God hath _____________ for them that love him. But God hath ____________ them unto us by his __________: for the Spirit _____________ all things, yea the ________ things of God” (1 Cor. 2:9-10).

So we see in the foregoing Scriptures that because our spirit is dark and dead nothing save a divine ray of light shining again into our spirit can bring the knowledge of the full provision of Calvary. Jesus took the penalty for our sin upon Himself, which was death.

“But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the _______________________, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should ________________ for ____________” (Heb. 2:9).

We have already dwelt at length on the new birth which results when we as sinners see that Christ tasted death for us and rose again that we might have His life. The new- born child of God usually at first experiences such a burst of new life and love that he walks in the upper regions for weeks and even months. It is so wonderful to be alive and in a dimension never before realized. It is wonderful to have a new love for all mankind. So overwhelming are his experiences that often the spiritual babe does not think of another future temptation, let alone a life with anything sinful or savoring of defeat.
And, then it may begin suddenly, or it may come gradually, but he commences to feel impulses and reactions which bring anything but satisfaction to him. His best efforts to please God may include an intrusion of proud self even in the sanctuary or the pulpit. Or he may see another new member of the family of God being especially blessed and used, and he cannot completely and fully rejoice as he knows he ought to. The new child in Christ may feel when corrected or warned, an inner reaction unlike what he knows to be the true nature of the Christ life. He may feel tempted to defend himself and talk back, but another part of him is appalled at such a reaction. He is aware of another principle within him which wars against the new life of Christ─two life principles within his own nature opposing one another and retarding rapid development in the Christian life.
Robert Aitken, an evangelist tremendously used of God in the conversion of thousands, had painful discoveries made to him about the condition of his heart. As you read, remember that these are the words of a vicar of the Church of England, a man who had been mightily used of God: “The discoveries that were made to me of my thorough selfishness were awfully appalling. My mind appeared a complete thoroughfare for the uncircumcised and the unclean, and crowds of thoughts without my leave or control were constantly passing to and fro.”
Let us now enter into the discoveries made to Frances Havergal, a fine-living Christian poetess and hymn writer: “I want to make the most of my life and to do the best with it, but here I feel my desires and motives need much purifying. For even where all would sound fair enough in words, an element of self, of lurking pride, may be detected. Oh, that He would indeed purify me and make me white at any cost.”

Two Natures Within Us─One Must Die

We see in the accompanying illustration, the happy new-born child shackled by his old nature derived from Adam and chaining him to this old world. The new Adam in him feels like exulting and reaching out to heavenly things, but he is conscious of being attached to that which drags him downward. If he continues striving to develop the new life, he will become more and more aware of how closely he is bound up with his old Adamic nature which the Bible terms the “old man.”
This old man is condemned to death through the provision of the cross; we could not otherwise be condemned if there were no promise of deliverance. And would not God, our heavenly Father, provide an ample deliverance within the atonement of Christ? This He has done and so, therefore, there is no excuse. No amount of trying to obey the commandments, which the Bible terms the Law, will avail anything. All trying does is to make us so desperate that we turn in our despair to Christ’s full and complete salvation.

“For what the law __________________, in that it was _______ through the _________, God sending his own Son in the ________________________________, and (by a sacrifice─marginal reading) for sin, _____________ sin in the _________” (Rom. 8:3).

In the accompanying illustration, the artist has depicted opposing drives or pulls which operate in the life of a born-again believer. The new nature aspires heavenward; the old Adamic nature of sin and death anchors him to this old world order. With his mind he desires God, but the flesh desires sin. All the time and energy of the new child of God will be spent in internal strife and struggle. St. Paul describes this state when he says:
“O ____________ man that I am! Who shall ___________ me from the _________ ___________________? I thank God through _________________ our Lord. So then with the mind ___________________ the law of God; but with ______________ the law of ______. There is therefore now ____________________ to them which are in _________________, who walk not after ______________ but after _______________. For the law of the Spirit of _______ in Christ Jesus hath made me ________ from the law of ___________________” (Rom. 7:24-25, 8:1-2).

Jesus, early in His ministry, graphically describes and vehemently condemns a mixture of good and evil contained within one living organism. For the sake of His hearers, He uses the picture of a tree. Doubtless He is referring to the confusing mixture which the serpent introduced to man when he tempted him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Little wonder that when John the Baptist, Christ’s forerunner, came, he announced Him as the axe which was “laid unto the root of the tree.” The second Adam became the Vine and we were to be engrafted into that new tree.

“And now also ____________ is laid unto ____________ of the trees: therefore ________ tree which bringeth not forth _______ fruit is _______ down, and _______ into the _______” (Matt. 3:10).

Indeed, Christ shows that it is impossible for a tree to bear both good and evil fruit. It is only because man, by the Fall, imbibed the deceit of the serpent that he is enabled to appear good, though evil. Let us closely study these important words of our Savior. The false prophets were inwardly evil, but in order to deceive, they had an appearance of good.

“Beware of _________ prophets, which come to you in _____________________, but ____________ they are _____________________. Ye shall know them by their __________. Do men gather __________ of __________, or ________ of _____________? Even so every _______ tree bringeth forth _______ fruit; but a ___________ tree bringeth forth _______ fruit. A good tree ___________ bring forth _______________, neither can a ___________ tree bring forth _______ fruit. ________ ________ that bringeth not forth _______________ is ______________ and cast into the _______. Wherefore by their __________ shall ye ________ them” (Matt. 7:15-20).

Again when Jesus was accused by the Pharisees of casting out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils, Jesus rebuked this generation of vipers, showing them how impossible it would be for Infinite Goodness to do the work of the devil.

“Either make the tree ­­­_______, and his fruit _______; or else make the tree ___________, and his fruit ___________: for the _______ is _________ by his _______. O __________________________, how can ye, _______________, speak ________ things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A _______ man out of the ____________ of the heart bringeth forth ________ things: and an _______ man out of the _______ treasure bringeth forth _______ things” (Matt. 12:33-35).

A well-known evangelist and holiness preacher was once accused of wrongly judging professing Christians and he replied, “I am not a judge. I am a fruit inspector.”
James asks a question which we do well to ponder. It answers those who would tolerate a mixture and plead that that is all the Christian can hope for in his lifetime.

“Doth a _____________ send forth at the _______ place ________ water and _________? Can the ______ tree, my brethren, bear _________ berries? Either a vine, ________? So can no fountain both yield _______________ and ________” (James 3:11-12).

Double-mindedness Condemned

Many Christians speaking of their true spiritual state have to admit of variableness and instability. They are on the mountain top one day, and plunged into the depths the next. They are up and then down. They are double-minded. The mind of Christ within them and, at the same time, the carnal mind create conflict. Paul advised the Philippian Christians to have the mind of Christ. Below we state Scriptures showing the two minds─the mind of Christ and the fleshly or carnal mind.

“Let this _______ be in ______, which was _______ in _________________” (Phil. 2:5).
“For to be _____________________ is ________; but to be ________________ __________ is life and peace. Because the ________________ (the minding of the flesh) is __________ against ______, for it is not ___________ to the law of God, neither indeed ___________” (Rom. 8:6-7).
“A ___________________ man is ____________ in all his ways” (James 1:8).
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and __________ your __________, ye ___________________” (James 4:8).

The age-long conflict is strikingly portrayed in the story of Abraham’s household. It is retold again by St. Paul in the fourth chapter of Galatians. Inner discord never occurred until Isaac, the supernaturally-born child, came into the home where Ishmael, the child born after the flesh, had already been established as heir. The disruption became so intense that one would have to go if harmony was to be restored and the well-being and health of the true heir insured.

“Now _____, brethren, as _________ was, are the _________________________. But as then he that was _______ after the ______________________ him that was _______ after the __________, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? _____________ the bondwoman and ___________: for ___________ of the bondwoman shall not be _______ with the ____________________________. So then, brethren, _______________ children of the bondwoman, but _________________” (Gal. 4:28-31).

It was hard for Abraham to see his son in the flesh sent away. He pled with God, “O let Ishmael live before thee.” This rending away of all that we have gendered in the flesh is very difficult. We are attached deeply to that which has meant our own life-blood expended in working for God, our church going, our giving, our religious reputation and our former carnal attachments. But the life of Jesus Christ cannot grow to its full stature in our house of clay until we send forth the product of our own efforts─our Ishmael.

Seth Rees, formerly a Quaker and later the founder of a movement, experienced this severe conflict within his own heart. He testified:

“But it was not long before I found the actions of evil within me. I was not a little surprised to discover that there was a sin-principle remaining in my breast, which mocked, persecuted and threatened the new life. It required great devotion and much prayer to remain in victory. I had seasons of great depression of spirit and sometimes suffered temporary defeat. At other times I would ascend to mounts of rapture and ecstasy.
“I was led to profess sanctification when I did not possess that blessed grace. I said, ‘I have taken Christ as my Sanctifier. I just claim it by faith. The altar sanctifies the gift.’ But I had never had a real funeral. Under ordinary preaching I felt fairly comfortable, and could stand up to all the tests put to the congregation. But under the search-light of the ministry of such men as David Updegraff or Dr. Dougan Clark, I would feel keenly conscious of a shortage in my experience.
Again and again have I rushed from the meeting into the woods or open country, by day or by night, to weep and cry to God for hours. I really reached a state of conviction even after I had preached for years, when the wretchedness and anguish of my heart was often inconceivable. My suffering under conviction for inbred sin greatly surpassed anything I had endured when an awakened sinner. I had been in the ministry for ten years and, incongruous and presumptuous as it may seem, I had dreamed of places of prominence and honor in my church. To give up my reputation and renounce my ambition for place and die out completely to what might be said or thought about me, seemed more than I could possibly do. But the Holy Ghost had ‘harpooned’ me, and I found no rest day or night, until I gave up entirely.

“If therefore thine ______ be __________, thy whole body shall be _______ of _________. But if thine eye be _______, thy whole body shall be full of ____________. If therefore the _________ that is in thee be ____________, how great is that _____________!” (Matt. 6:22-23).

It is what the new convert does with such discoveries of this double nature within him that will determine his advance toward the full stature in Christ, or his remaining a carnal baby as pictured by Paul of the Corinthian Christians.

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto ______________, but as unto __________, even as unto _____________________. I have ______ you with ________, and not with ________: for hitherto ye were not able to _____________, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet __________: for whereas there is among you ____________ and __________ and ______________, are ye not __________ and walk as ______?” (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

The writer to the Hebrews met the same difficulty among the professed followers who had failed to go on to perfection, instead of becoming teachers and helpers of others. The Church is crippled because she has so many babies and so few mature men and women.

“For when for the time ye _________ to be _____________, ye have ________ that one _____________________ which be the ______________________ of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of ________, and not of ________________. For every one that useth ________ is _______________ in the word of righteousness: for he is a ________. But _________________ belongeth to them that are of _____________, even those who by reason of ______ have their ___________________ to ____________ both ________ and ________. Therefore ___________ the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us ____________________________” (Heb. 5:12-14, 6:1).

In our next lesson, we propose studying the Scriptural teaching regarding this death to our old Adam nature, namely co-crucifixion with Christ.

Testing Time

1. Explain how spiritual death entered the human family.
2. If an enquirer were to come to you bewailing his deadness spiritually, how would you explain Christ’s having “tasted death for every man”?
3. Explain the problems of a double-minded Christian.
4. Here are three verses which refer to heart purity. Read these and show in which way they are related to one another. Matt. 5:8; Acts 15:8-9; James 4:8.
5. Read over carefully the personal testimony of Seth Rees and list the number of points which convicted him of his need for a death to his old Adam nature.

Fill out the study pages and return them to: cc@harveycp.com . We will correct your paper and seek to answer any query that you might have respecting the lesson. We shall also be happy to reply to any other personal queries.

This course material is free and not to be confused with other material for sale in our Family Christian Store.

Jesus referred to that with which we are all familiar─the natural birth of an infant. This He speaks of as being born of the flesh. The advent of a new baby into the family almost always excites wonder. Its tiny organs are all so skillfully fashioned as to provide it with sensibilities and faculties with which it will be able to communicate with the new world into which it has emerged.
Being born of the Spirit is far more wonderful than the being born of the flesh. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so is this spiritual birth higher than the physical one. Christianity is all about new born souls who emerge into a spiritual realm where which quickened faculties and sensibilities they communicate with the spiritual kingdom which God inhabits.
To miss the second birth is too tragic for words for as A. W. Tozer has said, “To be born only once is to be born lost and to remain lost. To be born the second time is to be saved. This the Bible teaches and everyone ought to know about it.”

What is the New Birth?

1. It is being born again (from above─marginal reading, John 3:3). In John 3:1-13 we have a most comprehensive statement from the lips of Jesus regarding the new birth. He was speaking to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and used the words “Verily, verily” three times in these thirteen verses. “The repetition of ‘verily’ or ‘amen’ among Jewish writers was considered of equal import to the most solemn oath,” said Clark the commentator. Jesus was uttering basic truths of tremendous import.

Read John 3:1-13 and find the verses in which Jesus says, “Verily, verily” ________ _____________. How many times is the word “born” used in these thirteen verses? No. ____.

The Jews were acquainted with the term “born again” for it was used of the Gentile or stranger who wished to be incorporated into the Jewish state as a citizen. The Jewish people considered any Gentile as unclean, and so if he wished to become a Jew, it was necessary for him to be admitted into the Jewish nation by a ceremony by which he was to be born again and baptized with water to render him clean. “It was,” says Horace Bushnell, “as if he had been born a second time of the stock of Abraham: and becoming in this manner a native Jew, as related to the Jewish state, he was said in form of law, to be born again. Finding this Jewish ceremony familiarly known, Christ takes advantage of it as affording a good analogy to represent the naturalization of a soul in the kingdom of God.”

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of ________ and of the _________, he cannot ______________________________ _________” (John 3:5).

Christ didn’t leave Nicodemus to suppose that He was speaking of ceremonial cleansing. “He only took water by way as a symbol and adds ‘the Spirit’ as the real cleansing power. . . . Be born again, or from above; different to that new birth which the Jews supposed every proselyte enjoyed: for they held that a proselyte was like a child new born. This was of water from below. The birth for which Christ contends was from above by the Holy Ghost.”─Adam Clarke.
Can you not see why Nicodemus, who was not only a Jew, but a Pharisee and a ruler as well, was puzzled by Jesus’ conditions? If we had recorded the mental reasoning of Nicodemus, he might have said, “I am not unclean. I am a Jew by birth and no Gentile needing birth into the Jewish state. I have Abraham for my father. Why do I require a second birth?”
But Jesus was speaking of a family other than that of the Jews and another Kingdom than that of the Jewish state. He was speaking of a spiritual kingdom where only new born souls constituted a part of that new race, that new generation, that new family traveling a new course and living by new laws. This is why Jesus tried to impress His hearer that he had to be “born from above” into a different Kingdom. God has always been pictured in Scripture as occupying the heaven of heavens. This birth was in no wise of earth or to be confused with any analogy to an earthly birth, so He safeguards it by saying, “It is being born from above.”
“We are a sky-born, sky-guided, sky-returning race and sweetly the peace-march beats, ‘Home, brothers, home!’”─Alfred Cookman.

2. It is being born of the Spirit of God. “That which is _______ of the _________ is spirit” (John 3:6).

In the beginning, God breathed into Adam─he was generated and became a living soul. But this precious life-connection with God was paralyzed the moment of his disobedience. Nothing less, therefore, than a second breathing of the Spirit of God would be needed to quicken man into life. This is termed regeneration. Will you please look up in your dictionary the meaning of the word “regeneration” and write out your definition in the space below:

Definition____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

This blessed operation of the Spirit was prophesied by Ezekiel, the prophet, when he said: “I will put a ______________ within ______, and I will _______ the stony heart out of their flesh, and will _______ them an heart of flesh” (Ezek. 11:19).
“The spiritual life owes its beginning to birth from above and this birth is receiving the Holy Spirit of God, so this is equivalent to saying that as many as received Him, to them gave He the Holy Spirit.”─Dean Alford.
Jesus likened the Spirit to the wind. “No human eye can see the incoming of the Spirit of God; no human perception, however keen, can mark whence He cometh and whither He goeth.”─E. Baxter.
Bishop Taylor-Smith once preached on the text, “Ye must be born again,” and he said: “My people, do not substitute anything for the new birth. You may be a member of a church, but church membership is not new birth, and ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” The Rector was sitting at his left. Pointing to him, the Bishop said, “You might be a clergyman like my friend, the Rector here, and not be born again.” Sitting next to the Rector was also the Archdeacon. Pointing directly at him, the Bishop continued, “You might even be an Archdeacon, like my friend, and not be born again, and ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.’ You might even be a Bishop, like myself, and not be born again. . .” A letter came a few days later from the Archdeacon to the Bishop.

“My dear Bishop:
“You have found me out. I have been a clergyman for over forty years, but I have never known anything of the joy that Christians speak of. I never could understand it. Mine has been a hard, legal service. I did not know what was the matter with me. But when you pointed directly at me and said, ‘You might even be an Archdeacon, and not be born again,’ I realized in a moment what the trouble was. I had never known anything of the new birth..
“Signed: The Archdeacon.”

Bishop Taylor met him and they talked and prayed together and as Bishop Taylor reports, “After some hours we were both on our knees, the Archdeacon taking his place before God as a lost sinner and telling the Lord Jesus he would trust Him as his Savior. From that time everything was different!”

ASSIGNMENT. Under this next section (3) we have quoted from John 1:12-13, Rom. 8:16, Gal. 4:6, 1 John 2:29 and 1 John 3:1-2. Read the verses over carefully and then neatly underline the word or phrase which you think teaches that we can be born into God’s family.

3. It is being born of God. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

“Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.” (1 John 2:29).

Born of God! What a royal birth! Born of the Eternal, Almighty God, Creator and Ruler of the Universe! We sometimes look at photographs of the royal family but realize the hopeless gap that exists between royalty and ourselves. But here we see that the King of kings has planned that rebellious man should, by means of the new birth, come into the heavenly, royal family of God. Inestimable condescension on His part to share a family relationship with man where we are privileged to call God, Father, and He to call us sons and daughters!

“And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).

In order to include both Jew and Gentile in this privileged sonship, St. Paul writes, “The Spirit cries, Abba Father.” The Hebrew and Greek words for father are joined together to express the united cry of both Jew and Gentile.
Further, the Spirit witnesses to our spirits that we are children of God. This was what John Wesley taught. He says: “The Spirit beareth witness with the spirit of every believer by a testimony distinct from that of his own spirit or the testimony of a good conscience. Happy they who enjoy this clear and distinct.” Adam Clark, a Methodist commentator, remarks: “Thus our adoption into the heavenly family is testified and ascertained to us in the only way in which it possibly can be done, by the direct testimony of the Spirit of God. Remove this from Christianity and it is a dead letter.” But let us note what St. Paul says:

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16).

“Upon the foundation of this immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit, all the regenerate man’s conviction of Christ and His work finally rests.”─Olshausen.

A hymn write exultantly witnessed to the reality of his own royal birth:

“A tent or a cottage, why should I care!
They’re building a mansion for me over there.
Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing,
Oh, glory to God, I’m a child of a King.”
—Harriet Eugenia Peck

St. John, glimpsing the marvel of this new relationship, says: 1 John 3:1-2, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; . . . Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
As a child of the first Adam expresses the nature and characteristics of his father, so those who are born from above show forth the likeness and nature of their Father God.

4. It is being born of incorruptible seed. “Being born again, not of corruptible _______, but of __________________, by the ________________, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23).

Mr. G. H. Lang, commenting on this verse in his book, The New Birth, states: “It has pleased God that new life in every kingdom should grow up out of a ‘seed’ that in itself contains the life-principle to be developed. Therefore, as is the seed so is the life. No seed can produce any other life than is contained in it; so there must be a change of seed if a new crop is to be grown.
“In the realm of thought and morals, words are seeds. A few words spoken to Eve by Satan produced in her heart a new sinful nature, leading to such hateful growths as doubts of God’s goodness and resentment against His holy commandment. A corrupt heart and a depraved life grew out of those words as surely as thistles grow from their own seeds.
“Similarly it is by man receiving into the soil of his heart some words of God that he finds a new and holy life growing up within him. In the bodily realm a physical seed is needful, but, of course, in the realm of the spiritual this is not so, but an immaterial seed produces the spiritual change.”

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that ____________________, and ____________________ that sent me, hath everlasting _______, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

Again Mr. Lang says: “‘Hearing the word’ is the seed falling into the ground; ‘believing’ what is heard is the soil receiving and nurturing the seed, that is, the heart welcoming and obeying the message of God. Not by diligence in external matters, but by humbly attending to the Word of God does His life find entrance to the heart, and there bring forth its own, that is, His own nature within us, for His words are ‘spirit and are life.’”

“Whereby are given unto us ____________________ and ____________________: that ____________ ye might be ___________________________________, having escaped the corruption that ____________________ through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
“Of _________________ begat he us with the ___________________” (James 1:18).

If you listen to the testimony of born again Christians, you will soon discover how it was the Word of God, suddenly illuminated by the Holy Spirit, which brought life and light to their darkened hearts.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when _____________ shall hear _________________________________: and they that ______ shall ______” (John 5:25).

A greatly used Scottish evangelist laid hold on these words of Scripture, “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” He untiringly used the Word as his seed with living faith in its potency. The Holy Spirit applied that Word and souls were born again.

5. It is a new creation. “If any man be _____________, he is a ________________; old things have passed away, behold _______________ are ______________. And all things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:17-18).

Not by repairing the “old man” but by creating a new man does God fulfill His original plan. Commenting on this verse a godly minister says: “It is a divine creation which involves the hand of God. He who does the work is the Creator; and the work produced is a new creature. This involves the disappearance of something that did previously exist─old things are passed away.”
No amount of effort to enliven a corpse will make it a living creature. As George Watson has said, “Can a dead man develop into a live man? You may take an onion and peel off its outer skin and then peel off the next skin, and you may go on developing the onion until you get the last bit of the onion developed, but it is onion all the way down. And so, you may take the sinner, you may develop him a hundred billions of ages, and he is a sinner still. Conversion is a miracle, as great a miracle as the birth of Isaac, or the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a divine creation, and not a development.”

“For we are his _______________, __________ in ________________ unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

The meaning of “workmanship” in the original Greek is that we are His “product; His fabric; a thing that is made.”
Paul uses the term “new man” in contrast with the “old man,” and reveals in this way the two generations.

“And that ye put on the __________, which after God is __________ in _________________ and true ___________” (Eph. 4:24).

Here we notice again the word “created” showing it to be a work of God and not reformation. D. L. Moody had discovered this secret and preached regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost. He says:
“I was twenty years old before I ever heard a sermon on regeneration. I was always told to be good, but you might as well tell a black man to be white without telling him how. You might tell a slave to be free, but that would not make him free. But (Christ) frees us. We are a bad lot, the whole of us, by nature. It is astonishing how the devil blinds us, and makes us think we are so naturally good. Don’t talk to me about people being naturally good and angelic. We are naturally bad, the whole of us. The first man born of a woman was a murderer. Sin leaped into the world full-grown, and the whole race has been bad all the way down. I have heard of reform, reform, until I am tired and sick of the whole thing. It is regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost we need.”

We notice again the word “created” connected with “new man” in Col. 3:9-10: “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have ___________ the ___________ with his deeds; And have _________ the __________, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that __________ him.”

“Put off” in the Greek means to “divest wholly oneself” or “to despoil.” “Put on” has a meaning of “sinking into a garment” or “investing with clothing.”
We note that the word “lie” comes into this picture of the old and new man. Adam was first clothed with a garment of light or righteousness but when he believed Satan’s lie he was divested of that garment and was naked. He then created a garment of fig leaves to cover his nakedness and ever since the old man has lived under a deceitful cloak─a fair covering over an inner filth of heart. The unregenerate man lives in constant fear that this lie or deceit will be detected and his associates discover how different he really is from the fair, outward show he puts on.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth ___________, nor uncircumcision, but __________________” (Gal. 6:15).

For this new man created in Christ, there is a New Testament which introduces a new generation in the last Adam and contains a new commandment. It presents a new and living way for this new man to walk in. There is a new name and new heavens and a new earth for his quickened senses to enjoy, and he is bound for a new Jerusalem where he will know how to sing a new song. The New Testament is definitely a book about a new race, a new generation, a new family.

6. It is eternal life and the names of those possessing it are registered in the Lamb’s Book of Life. “To the general assembly and church of the ______________, which are __________ in __________” (Heb. 12:23).

This Book of Life is a family register of the children of the Last Adam, who make up the church of the firstborn. Christ came, as we have studied in former lessons, to become the firstborn of a new race. This was His purpose in coming to earth─to impart this new life via the new birth.

“I am come that they might have _______ and that they might have it more ______________” (John 10:10).
“This is the record, that God hath given to us _________________, and this _______ is in his ______. He that hath the ______ hath _______; and he that ____________ the Son of God __________________” (1 John 5:11-12).

The date of every physical birth must be recorded at a fixed place of registration where a Birth Certificate is issued. When a sinner is new-born, his name is written in the Book of Life. He receives an “inward certificate” of assurance by the Divine Spirit witnessing with his spirit that he is a child of God.

Were Christ born in Bethlehem a thousand times,
And not in you, you would be eternally lost.
─Angelus Silesius.

“And whosoever was not found ___________ in the ________________________ was cast into the lake of _______” (Rev. 20:15).

The possession of this “life” was considered so very important that Jesus said it would be better to be blinded in one eye, or to have an amputation of a hand or foot rather than to be cast into hell and be lost.

“If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, _________________, and ________ ____________________: it is better for thee to ____________________ halt or __________, rather than having two hands or two feet to ___________ into everlasting _______” (Matt. 18:8).

Jesus likewise considered that the entry of one’s name in the Book of Life was far more important than to have the devils subject unto one.

“Notwithstanding in this _______________, that the _________________________ unto you; but rather __________, because your names are ______________ __________” (Luke 10:20).
“I intreat thee also, . . . help those women . . . with other my fellow-labourers, whose ________ are in the _________________” (Phil. 4:3).

The following references from Revelation speak of this Book of Life. Write out these verses. Rev. 3:5; Rev. 13:8; Rev. 20:12; Rev. 21:27.

7. It is a quickening. “And you hath he _____________, who were _______ in trespasses and _______; Wherein in time past ye __________ according to the _________________________, according to the _____________________________ _______, the spirit that now worketh in the _____________________________: . . . and were by nature the ________________________ even as others” (Eph. 2:1-3).
“And you, being _______ . . . hath he _______________________ with ______, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:13).

Testing Time

1. Explain why you think Jesus used the picture of being “born again” to Nicodemus.
2. Explain briefly and simply what regeneration means.
3. How may a seeker after God know with a certainty that he has been born of God?
4. In this lesson we have studied seven terms describing the new birth. From memory, list as many as you can of the seven.
5. If someone, disappointed with his religious experience, were to open his heart to you and tell you, “Nothing happened when I made a decision,” how would you advise such a person?
6. “Quicken” has several meanings. In the following dictionary definitions of the word, underline those which particularly apply to the new birth. Work, take effect, sharpen, whet, stimulate, hurry, expedite, accelerate, revive, revivify, resuscitate, animate, energize, strengthen.
Fill out the study pages and return them to: cc@harveycp.com . We will correct your paper and seek to answer any query that you might have respecting the lesson. We shall also be happy to reply to any other personal queries.

This course material is free and not to be confused with other material for sale in our Family Christian Store.

Old Testament Prophecies

THE BRANCH ─The Planting of the Lord

 

THE ROYAL EVENT ─ Prophecy Fulfilled

Your Family and Mine

What Went Wrong With Man?

The First “Don’t”

Testing Time

This course material is free and not to be confused with other material for sale in our Family Christian Store.