The
Word of Truth Ministries
Being Born Again Correctly
Jesus told Nicodemus, and by
extension, he told all of us, that we must be born again if we are to
understand and enter the Kingdom of God. The logical questions that should
enter our minds if this proposition is also put to us by extension are
these: 1.) What is meant by being born again, 2.) Why must we be born
again, 3.) How can a person be born again, 4.) What is the Kingdom
of God, and 5.) What are the consequences of not being born again?
The
term born again was a relatively common term when used by Jesus to
Nicodemus, but Jesus placed a new meaning to it. For the people during
Jesus’ time, any significant change of a person’s life situation was
to be born again: When a man or woman got married, such a one was
considered born again.
For Jesus,
the term meant a significant change in a person’s life situation, but he
described that change in more precise terms, and he dictated how to be born
again. What Jesus meant by born again was that man had to
change his relationship with God. Since we were born into this
world in a state of sin, [Psalms 51:5, 58:3/Romans 3:23] and alienated
from the life of God, [Isaiah 59:1-4/Psalms 14:2-3] we have to return to
God—that is, to be born again. This second birth is a birth that will
return man to a right standing with God.
Jesus said
that man must be born of water and the spirit, otherwise he cannot
enter the Kingdom of God. [John 3: 5] Human beings who are not born again
are outside the Kingdom of God; they do not have a right-standing
relationship with God. And Jesus said that the only way they can have a
correct relationship with God is by being born again. His birth was
prescribed: water and spirit. Without that combination, you
are not born again his way, and Jesus is the way to God. [John 14:6]
Therefore, it is done God’s way to be correct. The apostles of Jesus
understood what he meant. They commanded all who would have a relationship
with God to be baptized in water in Jesus’ name, and they said
God would give those baptized His spirit. [Acts 2: 38] They
understood Jesus’ statement of water and spirit to actually mean being baptized
in water and having the Holy Spirit of God.
Because
man’s original relationship with God was destroyed through disobedience
to the will of God (back in the Garden of Eden), mankind received a curse
of death and all the aspects that pertain to death—sickness, pain,
adversities, etc. [Genesis 3:13-24; Rom. 5:14-19] Furthermore, human
beings were alienated from God and a life with God. [Isaiah 59, 64:6-8] To
remove the curse that God placed upon man, Jesus Christ had to die a
substitute death for us so that God’s justice could be met. Jesus Christ
was a man approved of God with mighty signs and wonders. [Acts 2] God used
his righteous life and accepted his unmerited death to function as a
substitute for the sins of all mankind. Jesus’ death atoned for all of
mankind’s sins. But to benefit from his death, each individual must be
born again of water and of the spirit. That individual act places each of
us back in right standing with God.
The actual
way to be born again is by being baptized in Jesus’ name and being
filled with God’s Holy Spirit. [Acts 2:38; 8:16, 36-39; 9:17-18;
10:45-48; 19:5-6] Notice that this was the prescription all the apostles
of Jesus offered to the world. On the day of Pentecost, the day the New
Testament church was established, God had assembled the world at
Jerusalem. [Acts 2:5] The entire world heard the same message that
we must obey today to be born again. To be born again means to be
baptized in Jesus’ name and to receive the Holy Spirit of God, which the
Apostle Peter said was
a promise of God to everyone who repented of his/her sins and was baptized
in water in Jesus’ name. [Acts 2:38-40]. Once this has occurred, you
have confessed with your mouth and believed
with your heart.
Many have
the wrong concept about faith and believing God. To believe God’s word,
or believe anything, is not the simple act of forming a mental concept (a
gestalt) about His word, but it is to do what God’s word says. James
argues that he will show you his faith by his works and that faith
without work is dead--it is a mere gestalt. If I believe a thing, I
will do it. David said, I have believed, therefore have I spoken.
And Paul said we also believe and therefore speak. Belief without the
doing is no belief at all. In David’s case, the speaking was the doing.
[Psa. 116:10;2 Cor. 4:13]
A
person cannot believe without doing as an act of faith that is acceptable
to God. Both love and faith require the doing, yet both of these words are
over-used and under- comprehended. Concerning love, Jesus said, if you
love me, keep my commandment; that is the doing. And James said, faith
without works is dead, being alone. There cannot be
heart/head faith or love without actions. [John 14:15; Romans
10:8-11; James 2:17]
Once you
have repented, been baptized and received the Holy Spirit, you are in the
Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy
within the Holy Spirit of God. [Rom 14:17] Righteousness is
right-standing with God, and that right-standing with God will give you
the peace and joy of God, once you recognize that you have a correct
relationship with Him free of sin--that is reconciliation. [Rom. 5:10]
Living in
conformity to God’s word is not a sad or difficult way to live. It is a
natural way to live; it is the way God originally intended for human
beings to live; it is a joyous way to live; this way allows you to live
with a conscience void of offense toward God and man. This way allows you
to live with a mind toward heavenly things and without the fear of death
because you’ll know that death is an appointment made for all men, but
you will merely walk through it as though it were a valley or a shadow as
you travel on your way to a brighter, more perfect day.[Psa. 23; Prov.
4:18; Heb.9:27]
Now that
we have answered the logical questions that you should ask of God, this is
the logical question that you should ask yourself: Have you been
reconciled to God? That is why Jesus came into the world. Because
mankind was out of alignment with God, and we had no way to get back into
alignment, God sent his only begotten son to reconcile us back to Himself.
[Eph. 2:14-18; Rom 5:10-11]
This
reconciliation can only be achieved God’s way, and that is through Jesus
Christ having atoned for our sins. Atonement means Jesus has been a
substitute bearer of our sins, guilt, and shame before God. “Jesus
paid it all!” Jesus was the only one who was good enough in the eyes
of God to satisfy the righteous anger of God toward humankind and pay the
debt that God pronounced as outstanding. ”...For in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shall surely die.” [Genesis 2:16]
It was on
Calvary’s hill over 2,000 years ago that Jesus paid in full the debt of
all mankind that was outstanding before God. Whether we knew it was
outstanding or not, it was outstanding; God knew it, and the eternal
justice of God demanded that it be paid!
If we ignore the death of Christ, ignore the fact that he rose from the dead and became the first of those who would rise from the dead through belief in him, our failure to respond appropriately to that fact does not make that fact void or powerless to those who believe. [Rom. 3:3-4]
What Jesus did on Calvary was to give us his right-standing with God and take our wrong-standing with God upon himself. God took the favor that Jesus had and placed it upon us; He took the disfavor that we had and placed it upon Jesus. That is the reason, Jesus cried out on Calvary, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mankind’s sins that were placed upon Jesus the Christ on Calvary caused God to turn away from him, even as mankind’s sins had caused God’s face to turn from man. [Isa.59:2; Matt. 27:46]
God forsook Jesus that we may have his right-standing, and Jesus was made sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God in him. [2 Cor. 5:21] That was the magic, mystery, and majesty of Calvary’s cross. That cross, crude though it was, became an altar upon which Jesus’ body was made a sin sacrifice for all of mankind who will individually accept it. All those who will accept his sacrifice, God’s way, are declared free, innocent of guilt and shame, and they can stand, once again, in the presence of God free of sin--as God made us originally, but this time as begotten sons of God instead of made sons of God!
To reject or ignore what Jesus has done on Calvary is to ignore the atonement that God himself has offered and brought about to give man life and peace again. It is a dangerous decision—it is a decision that you make and you must live or die with. For the wages of sin is DEATH. [Rom. 6:23] The only way out of sin is to accept what Jesus did on Calvary. And that can only be accepted God’s way.
A fatal flaw of many Christians is to attempt to believe God, serve God, worship God, and obey God in their own way. God’s word is plain that all our righteousness is as filthy rags in his sight. And although our thoughts may seem right in our own eyes, God is saying that we are not washed from our filthy ways. God, assuredly, does not think as we think, therefore, to align our thoughts and ways to God’s, we must do all things according to his precise word, every word of God, line upon line, precept upon precept. [Prov. 12:15; 16:2; 21:2; Isa. 28: 9-10; 55:8; 64:6]
God’s way to be saved is to repent of sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit of God--that and that alone is to be born again according to God’s word. This promise is unto every person who will receive it, to as many as the Lord our God shall call, but it must be received individually and in direct accord to God’s word. All things must be doing according to God’s pattern to be correct. [John 3:3-7; Acts 2:38-40; Heb.8:5]
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