The change which our Lord here declares needful to salvation is evidently no slight or superficial one. It is not merely reformation, or amendment, or moral change, or outward alteration of life. It is a thorough change of heart, will, and character. It is a resurrection. It is a new creation. It is a passing from death to life. It is the implanting in our dead hearts of a new principle from above. It is the calling into existence of a new creature, with a new nature, new habits of life, new tastes, new desires, new appetites, new judgments, new opinions, new hopes, and new fears. All this, and nothing less than this is implied, when our Lord declares that we all need a “new birth.”
~ J.C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 122.
This very topic was the theme of the sermon in our church yesterday, based on Genesis 42:12ff. The text discloses that Joseph tested his brothers in several ways to determine if they had changed, aligning with 4 universal tests of new life that are revealed in Scripture:
1. Do the sins of your past characterize your present. This is not to posit perfection as the expectation, nor to ignore the struggle we all have. Is your life characterized by the sins of your past? Have you been changed by God?
2. Have you learned to love your brothers in Christ? The family of God is a higher priority than the family of man.
3. Do you exhibit godly character when nobody is looking? Behavior modification is NOT the test, but behavior will be changed.
4. Have those closest to you seen a change in you that exhibits Christ? Not the same as satisfying critics – honest change from having been made a new creature.
Have you been changed by God?