Imprisoned Yet Given New Life.

2Co 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. 

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

All things are newly spiritual in Christ. We are raised from hopelessness, to hope. Our walk in the newness of life is one of hope. We have an advocate, we have someone fighting on our behalf.

The prisoners on this planet who choose to remain imprisoned even after they are offered freedom- live under a death sentence and they are controlled by the warden running this planet- Satan. We are surrounded by the unredeemed prisoners and as such, our lives will be far from easy. We must holdfast to the newness of life we are given- a newness we renew every single day of our new spiritual life.

This is truth-

Joh_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.

Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh_3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

1Pe_1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

BORN AGAIN.

As soon as Jesus uttered those words, the very wise Nicodemus asked the logical question all of us would have needed to ask, right?

How? We can't very well go into our mother's womb again and be born. 

Do you think perhaps Nicodemus may have said that with a hint of amusement? Seriously. He was an old man and here he was being told that he needed to be born again. The very idea of having to enter his mother's womb a second time was laughable. Jesus wasn't laughing though, Jesus was telling Nicodemus a very important truth. In fact, this truth was so important Jesus told him that without being born again there is NO entering the kingdom of God.

Now Nicodemus was fully listening to these strange words, this strange concept.

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh_3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

A man must be born of water.

A man must be born of the Spirit.

Without this new birth it would be impossible for the man to go into God's kingdom.

Flesh is flesh, every human being most obviously is born of flesh, no man is born without flesh. Once a man exists in the flesh that birth of the flesh is over- no turning back. Being born of the Spirit is a whole other matter. There are going to be millions and millions of people who have never been born of the Spirit.

Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus not to be surprised by His telling him that he needed to be born again and He explained.

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

You can hear the wind but just like the wind you really don't know where it is coming from ultimately and you can't tell where it is going to go.  Imagine yourself on a sailboat out to sea and you can't even see land any longer only water. You've no method other than the sail to move your boat and there is absolutely no wind at all whatsoever, not even a tiny breeze. There you are, stuck at a complete stand still. You need to head in a certain direction to get where you are going but you can't. You wait…one day…two days…three days… where is the wind?! Why is there no wind?!  This isn't an unreality, this is truth, this happens. Wind does not always blow. There have been many times I've been working outside in the sweltering heat, sweat pouring off me, and I long for a breeze. I comprehend the state of being surrounded by absolutely no wind.  As the boat in the middle of the sea is stranded, as I perspire relentlessly in the heat, the wind is desired and we may even be praying for the wind to appear. Where do we think that wind needs to come from? Can it be on its way? Will it appear out of nowhere in a great gust? Will we have a storm of wind so powerful it will knock us over, tip the boat on its side?  Wind is a marvelous thing and unpredictable.  Yes, the scientist may tell us all about wind… the sun, air pressure, molecules and so on and so forth. They can make predictions about wind force in storms and even measure the force of hurricane and tornado winds. The mystery is still there, they too are subject to sweating on a hot day and longing for a breeze. 

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

You hear the wind, but even with all scientific knowledge you can't absolutely predict when it will come and when it will go. You will have guesses as a meteorologist, but absolutes are not going to happen. You will have theories and computations, and some might be spot on, but not all of them. No one can predict with certainty the actions of the wind. Often they'll be more fierce than expected, or less severe that is the nature of the wind.

When we are BORN of the SPIRIT it isn't a birth like a child. You know when a child is about to be born, you can generally tell the mother is very pregnant. Again, this isn't an always situation, but the majority of time births are expected and known about before they occur. Our Spiritual birth is not something that can be known, we aren't inside our pregnant mother when this birth happens. The Spirit is given to us, the new life we must have in Christ is given to us in such a way that it could happen at any time without any prior expectation of it occurring. You can hope for this Spirit birth, want this Spirit birth, and you can wait for it expectantly- but ultimately the Spirit like the wind, will go where it wills.

More on this tomorrow…all by the grace and will, the love of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And yes, all through the Holy Spirit!

God help us all!