In John 3:5-7 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “regeneration” in theology as new birth [born again] by the grace of God; that change by which the will and natural enmity of man to God and His law are subdued, and a principle of supreme love to God and His law, or holy affections, are regenerated in the spirit and implanted in the heart; born of the Holy Spirit. But why … what caused this necessity in the first place?
In Genesis 2:16-17 the Lord God commanded the man Adam, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Pastor David Jeremiah explains that the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden [believing Satan, doubting God and disobeying His commandment] brought into existence the three faces of death into the world: (1) physical death – the decline of the body until it inevitably dies, (2) spiritual death – separation of the human spirit from God in their earthly existence which was transmitted to the entire human race being born in sin, and (3) the Second Death – eternal separation from God, as the unregenerate sinner on Judgment Day has the record of their life opened and revealed, does not have their name written in the Lamb of God’s Book of Life as born again” in Christ, and therefore thrown into the Lake of Fire, Hell for eternity. 1 Corinthians 15:22 confirms, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
A sinfully godless life of egocentric lawlessness is fruitless and lethal. Romans 6:21-23 asks us to consider, “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The holy Law of God is unable to be kept in it’s entirety by fallen mankind and points us to the desperate need for a Savior from God. Romans 3:21-24 shows us God’s Plan of Salvation, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through [saving] faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus proclaims to us in John 3:13-19 “No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.” Sin is wicked, evil in principle or practice; deviating from the Divine law; addicted to vice; sinful; immoral. This is a word of comprehensive signification, extending to everything that is contrary to the Moral Law of God, and both to persons and actions. Death is in sin and life is in Christ.
John 3:35-36 concludes, “The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand. The one who believes in the Son has [regeneration of the spirit and] eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” The Apostle echoes the fact in 1 John 5:11-13 stating, And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has [a]life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Life, physical, spiritual and eternal, in Christ,
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment