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A NEW BIRTH NEEDED
In order to be saved a person must be born
again. Jesus said so in John 3:6-7. His words were:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto
thee, Ye must be born again.” The reason
each person needs a new birth is because each of us was born of fleshly
parents and we are flesh. We lack spiritual life, having only received a
natural or fleshly life from our parents. Paul wrote these words about
himself and the members of the congregation in Ephesus:
“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved.”
The question is this: just how bad off are we
because of our fleshly or natural birth? Being descended from Adam and all
the generations of sinners between him and us, we are like our ancestors:
sinners! Romans 3:10-11 sums up our natural born condition in these words:
“As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. In our natural born
condition men do not seek after God. They may seek religion in order to feel
good. They may seek to escape eternal punishment by doing religious things,
but they do not seek God.
People think that there is something
religious that they can do which will please God and motivate Him to save
them. But that is impossible. The Bible says:
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God,”
(Romans 8:7-8). Go ahead and pray the so-called sinner's prayer. God forward
in a religious meeting. Make a public profession of your home-made faith in
Christ. Get baptized. Try keeping the Old Testament Law of God. Do your
best. “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Nothing that people in
the flesh can do pleases God. Your efforts will not motivate Him to save
you! You are lost!
It is obvious that the Lord Jesus was
right. “Ye must be born again.” Sinners need to be born of the Holy Spirit.
He must work first by making the dead spirit alive else the natural man
remains forever dead spiritually. The Holy Spirit, being God, is sovereign.
That means, He does as He pleases. Jesus likened the Spirit to the wind
saying “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,”
(John 3:8). Men do not control the wind. They can only observe it by its
evidences. Neither can man control the Spirit.
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,”
(1 Peter 5:6). |
