Before we were saved, our spirit consisted of essentially our deadened heart and our defiled conscience. We were spiritually dead because our heart was unresponsive to the things of God even though it could hear the voice of the conscience. The conscience by itself could not lead a person to God but it brought guilt and a sense of defilement within.
After being born again, the Holy Spirit united us with Christ. Our spirit is now alive because of this work of the Holy Spirit in our heart and it is now responsive to God. It is called a new heart because it is now a heart of flesh and we say we have a new spirit because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and connecting our heart and conscience to God. God did not place a new spirit inside us when we received the new birth. Our spirit which was dead because it lost its connection to God has been made alive. Let us not think that we received some new thing apart from God. It is His life that made everything new.
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