(I ask for your grace in this delivery - it is a critical message that will exceed the recommended 15 minute time frame. The topic of being born again is essential to understanding your salvation. So here we go...)
Born Again – The Fundamental Doctrine in Salvation (John 3)
“Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of
God… Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
How many of us--who are not in the
medical profession--have seen a child being birthed? It’s a moment of awe isn’t
it? We know all about the process, but to see it happen, oh how miraculous! How
emotional! Jesus uses that circumstance of a woman in labor allegorically in
John 16 as he describes God’s work of salvation; remember, in the first
century there was no such thing as epidurals – women gave birth in pain in vertical
positions to allow gravity to assist in the birth. That is still a practice in
some parts of the world. Her pregnancy –
while beautiful – is often uncomfortable when sitting or sleeping, limits a
mother’s mobility and balance sometimes. Her body changes not just in shape but
also in function. Every part of her body is impacted. So -- all throughout the
pregnancy – from conception to full term, who physically has been doing the
work of nourishing and caring for the child in the womb?
Right – the mother! It is an act of love
and sacrifice. And when her time has come to give birth, it is called
labor for a reason! It is painful Mothers – AMEN? The mother groans,
pushes, groans and moans, pushes, steadily and repeatedly, and the energy and
effort become a difficult struggle, the pain heightens; both pregnancy and the immense
strain and stress of childbirth happens and yet she cannot stop the process.
She doesn’t stop. When the child finally enters the world, mom is so excited
to see the precious babe that the struggle was worth it. She no longer
remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into
the world. So how much effort did the baby have to put forward? Did he or
she consciously say I want to get out of here – let me hurry up the process? Or
just the opposite, I don’t want to leave this home, so I’m going to stay! No,
the child does not control the birth process, does not aid in nor direct the
process. The woman does all of the suffering, all of the anguish, all of the
groaning and moaning and pushing, in order to birth her child. And then, when
the child is birthed, it screams and is discombobulated, confused because he or she is no longer in the
comfortable home that was well furnished for them. All of the bright lights,
the sounds, the different hands are so foreign to him or her and makes the
crying sometimes more intense! But after a while, when hearing the mother’s
voice and heartbeat the child begins the process of acclimating to its new
life.
Similarly, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, also groaned, moaned, list
it so that following His struggle,
we too could be birthed.
Garden of Gethsemane the
cup. Jesus' sacrifice was greater than we can imagine. His horrific torture, then nailing Him to a cross was only part of the sacrifice. On that cross hung not just a person, but a bearer of EVERY SIN EVER DONE BY EVERY HUMAN AND WOULD BE DONE UNTIL THE SECOND COMING. The weight of all of those sins made Jesus grotesque to the Father. So much so that it shadowed --in Jesus' human experience--the presence of the Father. In Habakkuk 1:1-4, 13 the Spirit says that God cannot approve sin, He doesn't look upon it with approval. Perversion of justice, violence, etc. - God is Holy, God is Righteous. The uncountable sins Jesus bore placed Him at odds with the Father; Jesus would cry out at His darkest hour, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?) No one else could effect the redemption required for our salvation. (Hebrews 9:11-15,18-22) In our Triune God’s divine plan of salvation,
He alone does all of the work, He choreographs the timing and the circumstance. He determines the means of grace for our salvation: sola scriptura--Scripture alone (the Word of God with which we are sanctified and trained for eternal life); sola fide - justification, i.e., being declared righteous by God: that it is by Faith Alone that we are saved, and that is not of our own; and, sola gratia - by Grace Alone does God save us, not based on works or actions on our part. We are incapable of adding anything to salvation. Jesus says that you are not a
Christian unless you are born again, even if you choose to call yourself
Christian. HARD SAYING. Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the
kingdom of heaven, Jesus clearly says to all who profess to be a follower of Christ.
So what does it mean to be born again?
Let me tell you what it is not: it’s not being 'refreshed' as a Christian or 'revived' after a long absence from worship. Being born again is not an 'altar call'. It’s not the
words/rituals by a religious leader. No. How many persons present know that
they have been born again? How do you know? When I was 14, I was encouraged to get baptized – full
immersion baptism. I had followed the rules of the denomination and they
thought I was ready for this. But, it wasn’t until 45 years later, 45 long years – in God’s
timing – that I was born again. Baptism did not effect my regeneration; no words spoken over me effected my regeneration. It was the work of God alone through His Holy Spirit that 'resurrected' me from spiritual death. It only happens once. How many times can you be born physically?
Following the saying that the Gospels proclaim Jesus, and the epistles
explain Jesus, Paul by H.S. offers clarity in this act of regeneration or being
born again.
[Read Ephesians 2 one through 10 to everyone
and make comments as I do so.] If you have your Bible, turn with me so that you
can make notes. Reads vss 1-3. We were physically born
spiritually dead in our trespasses and sin – King David recognized in Psalm
51 that he was a sinner in his mother’s womb – a baby, yet he like everyone
before and after him born into this world he was born with the deadly sin passed
on by Adam. We all were born spiritually dead, separated from God - which was the initial consequence of Adam's and Eve's sin - spiritual death. We were born from our mother's womb spiritually dead; it wasn't discovered on any hospital equipment in the delivery room - it is a condition shared by every person born since the fall of Adam and Eve, whether we
wish to acknowledge it or not – see God already has! We had no interest in God in our spiritually
dead estate, no interest in His word, no desire to know God, but rather live
for ourselves – to satisfy our immoral desires. We were under the influence of
the sinful world culture and power of the devil. God says that because of that
we were to Him children of wrath! A few weeks ago we read in Corinthians that there were persons in that church who
were spiritual, having been born again into Christ, and also those who had not been
so, who were referred to as unspiritual. Yet here’s the best part of passage--verse 4. But. God. Turn
to your neighbor and say But God.” Whenever you see text that says But God,
you can expect God to be doing, saying or initiating something beyond our power.
READ 4 ….And then we come to the clincher, verse 8. Some of you may know this
verse by heart so feel free to speak it out loud. God The Holy Spirit
tells us: …read 8;The Holy Spirit comes into us to make us alive spiritually and to give us the faith to accept
Jesus as our Lord. We can't raise ourselves from the dead. Jesus did
not say to Lazarus – could you at least open the door so that we can call you
out of the tomb…Lazarus, first take off the cloths you’re wrapped in and when
you’re ready say Amen. No, no. Lazarus had no part in his
resurrection. Was only when Christ brought him back to life, Lazarus was
able to obey Jesus’ call to come out. EXPLAIN
SPIRITUALLY DEAD CANNOT HAVE FAITH.
We do not have the power. God does not
send us a calendar appointment that says on March 3 be ready to be born again.
You can’t get ready, YOU ARE SPIRITUALLY D-E-D – you don’t know when it will
happen. And this is a very critical point because there are denominations that
do not teach this important Bible doctrine, rooted in scripture, that comes
directly from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And it's really important to
understand that by grace you have been saved through faith that wasn't your own
doing, because you did not have faith= you were dead. God had to put His Holy
Spirit in us to make us alive to Him. ADAM AND EVE WHAT GOD SAID TO THEM. If you eat of
this fruit….. and from the instant that they rebelled against God they became
spiritually dead. They realized it, felt ashamed and hid from God. From that
point in time until Jesus comes again, all people born are physically born
spiritually dead. (Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit - He was the only fully human, fully God individual who was born spiritually alive!!) If we were not born again we’d still be children of Wrath
deserving eternal death. There was
nothing we could do or say that would take us from spiritual death to spiritual
life. Verse 10 says that in His act of regeneration, He has given us purpose - we’re created in Jesus for good works – that is, we have received special
gifts—spiritual gifts and talents, so that we can be Jesus in this world, to
tell out the gospel to others, to make disciples. Isn't it really important to
understand Bible doctrine if we are going to make disciples of people? Amen?
And then we come to the next hard saying of Jesus to Nicodemus and to us all: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” For years, even centuries, theologians have shared varying interpretations of what the water could be. 3 prominent ones: Some say that it represents the water of baptism. BCP, Pastor Prince, me and others I’m sure, says that (1) baptism is an outward sign of the inward grace of God - it is a symbol of the internal work of regeneration and a public declaration that the person has received Christ as Lord.
(2) the amniotic fluid of the physical birth of a human. Premise—we’re born
humans and based on that, we can be born again. (that may not hold since mammals with four legs also have wombs with babies in amniotic fluid)
(3) the water of God's Word. Next week
our Gospel read is from John chapter 4, where we see Jesus seeking out
Samaritan woman.Meets up with her at Jacob’s well, and He says – Give me a
drink. She’s astounded -- you're a Jew, you're not supposed to be talking to
me. And Jesus said, If you knew who was asking you, He would give you living
water, and you will never thirst again. Jesus associates Himself with Living
Water. Also in Eph 5, Paul is led by Spirit to
write to the church about the spiritual life of the family. He describes the
children, the wife, and then he talks about the husband. Husbands are to love
their wives just as Christ loves His bride, the Church, that He laid down His
life for her & who He sanctifies by cleansing her with the water of the
word. Husband is to imitate that in his own family. Cleansed by the water
of the word. Jesus, of course, is the word, and His words are backed with Holy
Spirit and Divine power . Rom. 1:16 gospel of Christ power of salvation.
He is the Way The Truth and the Life. Thus differing interpretations;
But
the important take away here, brothers and sisters, is that regeneration is not
an act of our own. It is impossible for us to achieve. These are hard sayings,
one of the reasons being that different denominations have differing views on
salvation, yet the clear truth can be found in scripture and if that truth is
not taught then as someone told me recently, I’ve got so many other options to choose
from to guess what it means!
After the instantaneous miracle of regeneration we enter into a new life in Christ, in union with Christ. Psalm 23, Matthew 7:14—paths of righteousness, narrow road. God provides what we need to live this new life. Like the baby who gets acclimated to his/her new life outside the womb and grows, gaining knowledge and skills, the Holy Spirit guides us, trains us in godliness, and nurtures us with scriptures in our spiritual growth.
The born again experience is different
for everyone: There may initially be joy. May be frustration at times - metaphorically it's like living in a certain house and certain neighborhood for years and suddenly finding yourself in a different kind of house and different kind of neigborhood. As time goes by, something inside you begins changing. You start wanting
to know God. You start desiring to be in His word. You start the struggle of
sanctification, about which Jesus prayed for us on his last night in his human
journey that we would be sanctified by the truth. When we are born again, we
become joined with Christ, that is, in union with Him.
As noted previously, it was 45 years between my
baptism and my being born again. God never left me nor forsook me, even tho I
was not the sterling character calendar girl for the cover of Spiritual Living
Magazine. Because I
wasn’t – I was still spiritually dead. yet He never left me nor forsook me,
even when I was living in my trespasses and sins. And I am so grateful. It took
me almost a year afterwards to begin to get grounded in the word and it was
sometimes a confusing time because I had to shake off the false teaching that
had been drilled into me. And it may be
true of others –a period of adjustment under the guidance of the Holy Spirit
as we begin to engage in spiritual disciplines – God’s means of grace that He
uses as instruments in our new life in Christ: Bible study, (the Holy Spirit will help you
understand those things that didn’t make sense before you were regenerated),
the prayer relationship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit himself indwelling
us. How many of us know this: that we serve a Triune God, and according to
Jesus’ words in John 14, that the Father Son H.S. will come to us and live
inside of us who are born again. And we will bear fruit worthy of the gift of
new life in Christ.
Friends, this is our Blessed Assurance. We are heirs of salvation
because we have been made alive, regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit,
who even at this very moment is working a work in us!
Thank you for your gracious patience.
This was not an easy topic that one skimps through, but it is a vital one. So
thank you. Let us pray.
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