You Must Be Born Again
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intro
intro
The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is the most importnt conversations that has ever happened. Because in this short encounter Jesus explains how we get to Heaven.
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
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.
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?
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.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
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.
What is Jesus talking about? This raises a lot of questions.
Why cant we just believe in Jesus?
What does it mean to be born again?
Cany i just believe in Jesus and turn over a new leaf?
Lets start with the obvious question: Why do i need to be born again? I beleiev in Jesus, is that not enough?
To understand why Jesus said you must be born again we need to look at humanity from a biblical perspective.
Look at yourself. You are a child of your parent, and you inherated your DNA from them. Your parents were human and so you are human - you inherated your human nature from them.
They inherited their human nature from their parents and so we go back and back and back till we get you all our origional parents: Adam and Eve - the 2 origiuonal sinners.
And because we are all decendances from these 2 sinners we all have a sinful nature.
This is in contradiction to the human world view: The world says that we are good people, who occasionaly do bad things. But the bible says something completly different: It says that we are evil people who occasionaly do something good.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Humanity things its in a better condition that its actually in. We think we are safe, when in fact we are lost. We think we are good, when in fact we are evil.
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Jesus made this clear:
Jesus said that all the evil thngs we do, lies, hate, lust, even murder are not the result of siocity or this or that, but rather they come from our own hearts.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Our hearts are not good and pure, they are evil and corrupt.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Bottom line: We sin because we have a sinful, sinners nature. - AND thats a problem.
Why? Because we will always do what is in our nature to do.
Why do lions attack antelope and eat them? Its in their nature. Why do weavers build such elaborate nests? Its in their nature. Why do ducks quack? its in their nature.
Why do pigs like ro roll in the mud? Its in their nature. ok, but now lest say i take a pig and i dont want this pig to roll in the mud., i want it to be more like a cat, nice and clean.
So i take this pig and give it a propper bath, i scrub off all the dirst. I buy it a little cat collor and a cat bed and a few little cat tys. I start feeding it whickers and put a little bow on its head.
I have cleaned this pig and set it up to live its life like a clean cat. What is going to happened the moment I let it go? Will it play with the cat toys and scratch its hoofs on the play pole? NO, it will go strating back into the mud- Why? Becuse its a pig and thats what pigs do, and you can clean the outside of a pig, but it still has the heart of a pig.
This is our exact same problem.
We can take a sinner to church. We can get them to totally clean up their act and turn over a new leaf. we can give them a wondeful bible, teach them amazing grace, sign them up for prayer meetings.
This is what religion does: It totally and wonderfull cleans up the outside. But like the washed, bowed pig, there is a problem: They are still the same on the inside and thats why religion is a sham.
And its only a matter of time before, like the pig, they go straight back to the sin - Why? because thats what sinners do.
The problem is that no matter what we do on the outside, you are still a sinner on the inside, its tyour nature you were born with, and its that nature you will always revert back to.
We need a new nature
We need a new nature
So if you were born, prom your parents with a sinful nature, then the only way to solve the problem, is if you could somhow be born again a second time, with a different nature, a holy nature.
And this is exacally what Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about.
The phrase born again, literally means born from above.
Lets read Jesus words again:
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.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
To be born of the flesh, that speaks to our sinful nature we got from our human parents, but to be born of the Spirit means that we have been born again by faith Jesus christ.
So were does the new nature fit in?
Well if we inherated a sinful nature from our parents, then when we are born again we will reveive a new nature from the Spirit.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
In the same way thet children look physically like their parents, the children of God shouyld look spiritually like God.
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
That phrase “new man” refers to our new nature. We have inherated God’s nature.
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
This is how we can judge a born again believer from just a believer. A believer is nothing, that just means that you believe in Jesus, so what, even demons beleve in Jesus.
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
Believing in Jesus makes you no better off than a devil, but if you are born again, then you have become a ligitimate child of God.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And this chnage, not only can, but MUST be tested. That whole “dont judge” culture is totally unbiblical. The only :christians: who say “dont judge: are those who will be found out to be fraudulent.
If i know for a fact that i am my parents child, then i will have no problem at all submitting to a DNA test, but if i am only pretenting to be their child to get the inheritace, then i will go around saying “i dont have to prove anything, who made you God?”.
Rather we must judge one another by our fruit to see if we are manifesting a divine nature or a sibnful one.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Many so called christians are pigs mascerading as cats. Its very simple actually:
1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
You see, If you still enjoy and continueto do things that your sinful nature loved then you are still a sinner - its that simple.
You swaer, lie, listenand watch filth, have sex out of marriage, look at porn, gamble, get drunk - these are all perfectly normal things for sinner to do.
But, not for so called Children of God.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
How:
21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.