life anymore, but that you want to live a new life that is pleasing to Him. With the new heart comes a new conscience to think in terms of God’s righteousness. The way this works is that righteousness becomes the guiding principle in a person’s life and relationships. The new heart produces a sound mind, and new feelings that are good and holy. It is the new mind that overcomes the old sinful unwholesome thoughts. It is the new feelings that God produces in the heart that overpower past negative feelings that may surface, etc. It is the new pattern of living that displaces the old way of life. In manifesting the righteousness of God a person operates from a feeling of love, compassion, joy, mercy, etc. It is the new person that ministers to the people around him or her because he or she is touched by what others face in life. A better life is what God wants for mankind. A new life is what man struggles to live but cannot. Man cannot live a new life apart from God. This is why Christ states (in John 15:5), apart from me you can accomplish nothing. This means that as people live in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness is revealed through their actions that are found pleasing to Him. This will never be brought up in secular counseling that denies the reality of new life from God. This is the truth that everyone tries to get around because of the darkness of their understanding. In getting rid of what is sinful and being nourished by the purity of the Word of God a person can come to the place of personal wholeness and healing from the effects of sin. Righteousness results in being healed from sin through the blood of Christ. Notice the Greek word for healed used in I Peter 2:24, (when it says, By his wounds you have been healed) is iaomai. Thayer defines it, to cure, heal, to make whole, to free from errors and sins, to bring about (one’s) salvation.6 The internal healing man has in general does not go far enough. The true healing man needs does not come from a therapist or a twelve-step program even though helpful as they may be. The healing that man needs comes from God. This is what makes a person whole and complete. True healing comes from God
When something is healed it is brought back to its original designed state. For instance, a man may break his arm. When the broken bone is set straight and put into a cast, it becomes healed and returns to its original state of functioning properly. It does not become infected and gangrenous. It receives its vitality from the bloodstream and becomes whole. But if the broken arm is neglected, infection will set in that will lead to death. Know that it is in believing the gospel of God that a person’s life is set straight and healed from sin. It is the habitual manner of living in obedience to God that works like a cast in helping to set straight a person’s life. Faith in Christ saves man from eternal death and leads him to life. It brings him to return to his original designed state of receiving his vitality from God and being made whole, which enables him to properly reflect the glory of God. Righteousness produces a new love for God that causes a person to put away the old personality that seeks only to please itself and put on the new person that seeks to please God. As sin was the driving principle in the old personality so now righteousness becomes the new. But if a person continues to resist the truth of the gospel, he or she will not experience the salvation or intimate love of God even though given the opportunity to do so. Know that continued unbelief (hardness of heart) will set in that will lead to eternal death as man cuts himself off from God. This is the harshest reality of being unyielding to the Spirit of God’s work in one’s life and refusing God’s offer of salvation from sin.
13