Just what did God do when I got saved?

This week the author launches into an area I’m not qualified to discuss. He speaks of sin as it relates to small children. When I read this, I wondered what I would say since anything I say in this area carries no weight. So I prayed and read it again and I began to see some things that have been rolling around inside me for many moons. Let me explain.


When the author refers to small people and their innate ability to demand their own way I began to think of the relationship I have with sin. I got saved at 16 years old (That would be July 1968 in case you wondered) while sitting in a very hot chapel in a school that is described as “a controlled disciplinary environment”). I got baptized in the Holy Spirit 10 years later. But over the years I’ve found that I still voluntarily do things that are not Godly. I find I want to do things that are sinful and (to make matters worse) I then go out and do them. So there is nothing new in this pattern. It’s been going on for a long time. So rather than rehash years worth of sinful, stupid events in my life, let me cut to the chase.

What did God actually do when I got saved?

That’s the question I have. Second Corinthians tells us this:

2 Cor 5:16-17 Consequently, from now on we estimate {and} regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value]. [No] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint {and} as a man, yet now [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh]. Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh {and} new has come!

Please note, the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. So if that is true (and it is) then I am missing an important piece of information that will help me function correctly as a Christian. I don’t know what actually passed away and what to do with what remains.

It appears to me, that since I am a spirit and I live in a body and I have a soul (mind and intellect) then what Paul is talking about here is my Spirit. God gives me a new spirit that is fashioned after Christ, with desires for Christ and God. The old spirit is gone. So my spirit is a new creature.

Now comes the true battle, the one with the rest of me. I think if we follow Paul’s writings in the order they were written, we can see an interesting pattern. Lets look at 3 sets of books, Corinthians, Romans and Philippians. They were written in that order. I’ll take 4 sets of Scripture and summarize them in the order Paul wrote them.

1. We are a new creature (2 Cor 5:17)

2. Paul Wrestled with a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor 12:7)

3. Paul wrote in Romans 7 that he did things he didn’t want to do, but identified sin as the source of the problem, NOT PAUL.

4. God will finish in us what he started (Phil 1:6)

Here is what I see happened in Paul’s life. He recognized he was a new creature when he got born again. He started wrestling with his flesh and sin in 2 Cor 12. He realized in Romans 7 he was fighting something he could not beat by himself. Then in Phil 1 he relies on God to bring him through to the end.

This is a high level view of Paul’s life and perhaps from a different perspective than you’ve looked at it before. If you dig into this a little deeper, you will immediately run into Romans 8. There is a way out of the sin cycle in this life. It’s not easy and if you fight addictions and repeated failures in overcoming sin it seems like there is no way out. But God clearly tells us there is a way to overcome. I struggle mightily when I try to overcome and fail. That’s when I need to rest on God’s grace and mercy and those that God has placed in my life as traveling companions.

Now in order to bring this to conclusion, let me come back to the author. He is coming at this book from a Calvinist point of view. I don’t share that view. Much of this chapter sounds like it is rooted in the Calvinist definition of “depravity”. I don’t ascribe to their definition of the depravity of man. I do know that man is clearly born into sin and that we need a savior to deliver us from the bondage of sin. I have placed my trust in that savior. I believe Peter when he says God has no desire that anyone should perish. So the main question I’ve asked is what did God do when I got saved? I’m going to write what I think happened. I may not have it all correct, but here is what I think happened.

I think God gave me a new spirit and the Holy Spirit to help me manage life until I either go home to be with the Lord or He comes back. I’m going to have success’s and failures, but I can rest assured that He will accomplish in me that which he intended all along!