The Apostle Paul writes about our faith and salvation in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Colossians 1:27,

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?"

"to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The Apostle John tells us that God the Father testifies about what determines whether or not we have eternal life, Zoe⁹³ life, spiritual life and will go to heaven in 1 John 5:11-12

"And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life [Zoe, spiritual life]; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

God the Father tells us plainly that the only thing which determines whether we have eternal life and will go to heaven is by whether we have His Son Jesus Christ living in us. The significance of this is that to have Jesus Christ living in us is to have the very life of God living in us. Jesus said He IS Life (John 14:6). Jesus’, God’s, life is eternal, indestructible. To have Jesus living in You is to have eternal life, indestructible life, living in You, the very life of God; therefore, to have eternal life yourself.

The writer of Hebrews tells us about the life of Jesus:

"Who has become [our Final & Only High Priest] such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of a life indestructible¹⁸¹. . . . But He, on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:16, 24-25)

The writer of Hebrews tells us that once we receive Jesus Christ we have eternal life forever because Jesus will never die and lives forever in us and as our High Priest before the Father to make intercession to Him that He has saved us forever.

When we unite ourselves with Jesus, the reason His death and resurrected life become ours is for the same reason that the results of Adam’s sin became ours. It is because once we unite ourselves with Jesus, whatever is His is ours; thus His death becomes our death and our sins become paid for through Jesus’ death through our uniting with Him. This also explains why, though Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, His death does not become death for our sins until after we unite ourselves with Him.^182/66 What this means is that just having an intellectual knowledge about what Jesus did for us does not save us. We must receive what Jesus did for us on the cross by receiving Him before we are saved and receive His indestructible life.

What does this have to do with receiving birth from above and a new recreated living human spirit? The Apostle tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17

When we receive Jesus Christ as savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives, God through The Prophet Ezekiel tells us the following takes place:

"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

When we receive Jesus Christ into our hearts we receive birth from above and the following happens:

1. We receive Jesus’ eternal indestructible life and thus eternal life ourselves.

2. We are united with His death and thus his death pays the penalty of all our sins past present and future never needing to be paid again.

3. Our spirits are recreated and made alive once again, we receive birth from above.

4. Our hearts, our wills, our souls are freed from the bondage of sin and recreated to respond in obedience to the dictates of the Holy Spirit through our spirit.

5. We have the moral righteous image of God restored in ourselves.

6. Our spirits are joined with the Holy Spirit and made one spirit with Him.

7. And as a result we enter back into unhindered communion and relationship with God.

Unfortunately, this birth from above on this side of heaven only takes place in our spirits. The full redemption of our soul and flesh does not take place until the resurrection. This is the reason why that even though our spirit is made alive with God Himself and His moral righteous nature, yet we still have conflict with sin so that Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16-17

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh with-strong-passion-fights¹⁸⁴ against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."

On this side of heaven we are saved positionally in Christ. What this means is that in God’s eyes we are cleansed of our sins past, present and future (Heb 10:12, 14); therefore, there is no barrier between us and God. As a result we have free access to God’s throne and to God through our spirits. He also relates to us as if we are as holy and as righteous as his Son even though we ourselves continue to have conflict with sin in our soul and body. Paul put it this way in Romans 7:24-25 and 8:1

"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

In this passage, first, Paul tells us that with his mind he agrees with God’s moral law that it is true and righteous; but, second, that with his body, even though he is saved, whether he wants to or not, he still struggles with sin and even serves sin; but third, that even though on this side of heaven he does not have complete continuous experiential deliverance from the power of sin over his soul and flesh, yet positionally in Christ in his relationship with God he is accepted without condemnation through Jesus Christ. This is the life and conflict of the born again Christian on this side of heaven.

When you receive Jesus into your heart as Savior and Lord, you instantly receive birth from above and your spirit is recreated alive, but on this side of heaven it only takes place in our spirit, not in our soul and body. Our new created spirit, unlike our sinful soul and flesh, is identical to Jesus’ nature and wills to do what God wants. But Paul gives us a further promise about the completion of being recreated in His image. He writes,

"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor 15:51-53).

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." (Phil 3:20-21).

Paul further explains about this resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46

"It is sown a body motivated-and-controlled-by-the-soul¹⁸⁵, it is raised a body motivated-and-controlled-by-the-spirit¹⁸⁶. If there is a soulish body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the soulish; then the spiritual."

When God created us, He created us to be motivated and controlled by the spirit. It is through our spirits that we have relationship with God and receive from God His will and desire. We then with our souls decide whether to carry out that will or not through our bodies. In our present form the spirit has no access to the body. Our spirit cannot make our body do anything. Only the soul has control over our bodies. This is what is meant by it being sown a body motivated and controlled by the soul. In the resurrection, however, it is raised a body that is motivated and controlled by the spirit. This means that in the resurrection the spirit does have access to the body and can control the actions and behavior of the body. Our bodies in the resurrection will also be immortal. They will not be able to die and cannot die. They are sustained by the power of God through the Holy Spirit through our spirits. The eating of food in heaven will be for pleasure, not for sustaining physical life. Finally, the kingdom of God is in the spiritual realm. This present body was made for the physical realm and is not able to relate to or function in the spiritual realm. Our recreated spiritual bodies are physical bodies but they are created to operate primarily in the spiritual realm, though they are able to function in the physical realm as well.

In heaven we are not only freed from the penalty of sin and the presence of sin, but the will to sin which was the nature of our old sinful soul and flesh. In heaven you do not sin and you have no desire to sin. Heaven is the absence of sin. Heaven is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." God’s nature is love, joy and peace continuously all the time. Because we will be one with Him in heaven forever, we will forever experience love, joy and peace. Heaven is perfect sweet communion with God because there is nothing corrupt in us to hinder our communion with God. In Heaven it is impossible for us to sin because we are born again into a nature that is identical to Jesus’ nature which is without sin and cannot sin forever. The Apostle John writes in 1 John 3:9,