Monday, April 6, 2020

You must be born again John 3:7



John 3:7  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 

     Jesus never introduced mankind to a religious proposition. He introduced to us a spiritual way and a natural impossibility. But the naturally impossible is divinely or spiritually possible. Indeed with God all things are possible. Jesus introduced us to that which only God’s power could do, signaling the end of all vain self-righteous religion. The only possible way to live a spiritual life in truth, that is, true worship of God, is to have that life given to us by God in the first place. It must granted to us as a gift.

     Here all human speculation of spirit and truth fall before God. True believers, true worshipers of the living God are born of the Spirit of God. Discipleship is submitting to the urge and the process of learning those counter intuitive principles that are natural to the spiritual Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus taught us to pray for the Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven! Discipleship or sanctification follows upon that which has been accomplished by God in the believer through new Spirit birth or salvation. Religion teaches that pious behavior wrought by discipline is that necessary duty performed in order to attain what God has for us. (Or at least, to avoid the worse of what God has for us.)

     But one cannot be a true believer unless faith is a gift that has been given by God. Man naturally believes in himself, not God. All false gods are a reflection of man's self- worship. But true worshipers of God are of God. His Spirit gives the Kingdom of Heaven quality of life. It is a life where God is not hidden, but in substantial and effective view.

     To be filled with the life of God, or eternal life, is to have both Spirit and Truth meet in unity. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To be without this Divine intervention is to live temporally in spirit death for only as long as that death takes to destroy our bodies. During our natural lifespan without Divine revelation we can only follow the lie of self-worship.

     There are many forms of self-worship. The most sophisticated use bits and parts of what God has revealed so as to keep us self-centered rather than divinely centered. So the world presents a picture of many competing religions. Some compete by accepting everything as true. Some compete by rejecting everything as false. But none have to do with God unless the claim to truth is from the Spirit of God.

     The Spirit of God reveals the Father and the Son. To live the life of the Spirit is to live the life of the Son. Participating in the life of the Son is worship in Spirit and Truth. Living the life of the Son is the consequence of having been filled with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has come into the world. He has revealed the Son to us. One day as a result of this miracle, we were enabled to make a statement we could have not otherwise made with confidence.

     We say that Jesus Christ is God. We believe in the hearts of our beings that He was raised from the dead. We understand that we have been raised with Him unto eternal life. We understand that such life is ours now. We pray to Father God. We sing to Father God. We read the living Word of Father God, and receive it! All this occurs because we are filled with the Spirit of Life. We are born again by Divine Spirit birth!

     We cannot explain these phenomena by any human means. There is no corroborating evidence we can offer the world beyond the feedback loop of our testimony. What has happened to us is testified to in the Word of God. The Word of God is the Word of the Father, Son and Spirit. The Word of God is the Word of Revelation and is testified to by others who have shared the experience present and past. The inner witness of the Spirit brings an inward confidence that something about has been truly changed. We know it is true. We are not trying to believe. We do believe, in spite of any questions that still swirl around in our heads. It is so strange. It is disorienting at first. Yes it is true, we are born again! Born of the Spirit of God!                                                                                       
                                        From the book
Any Questions by Don Forss, D.Div, XLibris 2016, p. 9-16

No comments:

Post a Comment

Hello and welcome to Blogspot Emmanuel. Comments here are reserved for member of this blog. If you would like to comment on what you read here, you may become a member. We do this to control who is permitted to comment and to avoid trolls and hackers.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.