The Year of our Lord, Jesus Christ
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
The second of the twenty-five instances wherein Jesus found it compulsory to preface the teaching with Verily, verily is the absolute necessity of being born again. Some may mock the term born again, they may deride it, ignore it, scorn it, and dismiss it. But there it stands. A Verily, verily teaching straight from the Master’s lips.
According to Jesus Christ, if a person does not experience this thing of being born again, they will not, cannot, see the kingdom of God. Explain it away if you wish, but to your own peril. No doubt this is what Paul is writing about in II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. How can old things pass away, and all things become new? Only by being born again.
When a child is born physically this happens. Old things, the womb, are passed. New things, life, the feeling of pain, bright lights, tears, growth, the drama that is the human experience can be experienced. So too with the spiritual new birth of a believer in Christ. Old things are passed, and new things take their place.
In a world that demands proof of everything many clamor for the proof of this new life that is found through being born again. There is proof. Simply put, the proof is the new life. For without a new life there could not have been a new birth,, but because of a new birth there is a new life. This new life is identifiable by certain traits. For example, one is living within the boundaries of Christ’s new commandment found in John 13:34. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Concerning this commandment, Jesus states clearly that it is the evidence to everyone that a person has been born again and has become one of His disciples in John 13:35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. All men may not understand tithing, soul winning, holiness, purity, cleanliness, prayer, or reasons to study the Bible, but they do know this: God’s children are supposed to love one another.
Certainly, this can be faked, for many have, but only for a while, not a lifetime. Just as sure as no person that is born can be unborn (they can pass away but not be unborn) so too is it an impossibility for a person to truly be born again and then become unborn again. The true, Bible based, Spirit empowered, faith assured new birth is for life. Eternal life in the ultimate kingdom of God. His kingdom is spiritual, not physical, eternal not temporal, immortal, not mortal. This is a Verily, verily teaching.
Until next time,
William T. Howe, Ph.D.
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