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!
