The reason why it
is necessary
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Jesus Christ
spoke of the new birth to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who came to Jesus
by night. Here is what we read in the Gospel according to John: “There was a
man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 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. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the |
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Therefore,
according to the words of Jesus, one must be born again to enter and see the |
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But why is
the new birth indispensable to enter the |
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How it is
experienced
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How can a
man be born again? According to the words that Jesus spoke to the Jews -
bearing in mind that when Jesus said to Nicodemus ‘Ye must be born again’ He meant
that not only Nicodemus but also all the other Jews had to be born again - ,
in order to be born again, a man must repent and believe in the Gospel. For
Jesus said to the Jews: “Repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark |
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Someone
may ask: ‘Is it not written that one must be born of water? Yes, that’s what
is written, but the water Jesus spoke of is not water baptism but the Word of
God, which in the Scripture is symbolized by the water, as it is written in
the epistle to the Ephesians that Christ “loved the church, and gave himself
for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26), and in the book of Isaiah: “For as the rain
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed
to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth
out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah
55:10-11). Please, notice how the Word of God is compared to the water which
comes down from heaven. Now, John says that “he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God” (John 3:34), for Jesus, who was sent by God, came down from
heaven and spoke to us the things which He had heard from His Father, that
is, the Good News of the Kingdom of God. And we who were dead in our sins,
have been regenerated (or we have been born again) by the Word which by the
Gospel was preached to us by Christ (Ephesians |
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However,
as Jesus said, one must be born again by the Spirit of God as well. Let us
therefore speak of what the Holy Spirit has done in order to regenerate us. |
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When we
heard the Word of Grace, the Spirit convicted us of sin, of righteousness and
of judgement because, according to what Jesus said before He was glorified, the
Holy Spirit was sent to do also this work of conviction: “And when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I
go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of
this world is judged” (John 16:8-11). Brethren, it was the Holy Spirit who
convicted us that we were sinners and unbelievers; before the new birth we
thought (leaning on our own understanding) that we were not sinners, who
deserved to go into the everlasting fire, because we also were slaves of sin;
we did not speak as we should have done because we also were children of disobedience.
Some of us said: “What evil have I done to deserve God’s judgement?’, some
others said: “I have not killed anybody, I don’t steal, I don’t blaspheme,
what should I repent of, since I have no sin?’, while the Word of God stated
and still states: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we
have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it
is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they
have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction
and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There
is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:9-18; cf. Psalms 14::1-3; 5:9;
140:3; 10:7; Isaiah 59:7-8; Psalm 36:1). But God was patient with us and
waited for us to recognize that we were sinners in His sight, to repent of
our sins and to call upon Him, so that He might have mercy on us. |
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How many
of us, before believing in the Lord, did say that we were believers? Many,
yet we were not believers but unbelievers because we had not yet believed
with our heart in the Gospel. Actually, when we said: ‘I believe’ we meant:
‘I also have heard of it’. In our judgement, to hear of the Gospel and to
believe in the Gospel were the same thing, while there is a great difference
between hearing of Christ (without believing in Him), and hearing of Him and
believing in Him with one’s heart; in the former case one is still lost, while
in the latter case one is saved and he is sure he has eternal life. Before
our new birth, we were rebels and wicked, but thanks be to God who, through
His Spirit, convicted us of sin first, and then He made us alive. “The Spirit
is life” (Romans 8:10 – NKJV) and He made us alive, as it is written: “It is
the Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63 - NKJV). |
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Many say
that all men are children of God, which means that all men are born of God,
but this statement is false because the Scripture states that only those who
are on the way of salvation are children of God; all men were created by God,
but not all men have been regenerated by God. |
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Jesus
said: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Now, we know that Christ is
the door, for Jesus Himself said: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in,
he shall be saved” (John 10:9), and that Christ is also the way which leads
to life, for He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), and we know also that those who find
the way which leads to life are only a few, which means that those who are
born of God and are on the way of salvation are few in comparison with those
who believe not and walk along the way which leads to destruction. The
Scripture teaches that only those who have received Jesus Christ are children
of God, as it is written: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God” (John 1:12-13), and also: “For ye are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). It is by faith in Jesus Christ that a
man becomes a child of God, therefore unbelievers are not children of God but
they are children of the devil because they don’t believe in the name of the
Son of God and to confirm this I remind you of the following things. |
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Jesus said
to those Jews who did not believe in Him and wanted to kill Him: “Ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). |
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When Jesus
explained to His disciples the parable of the tares He said to them: “He that
soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed
are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked
one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil” (Matthew 13:37-39). As you can
see, according to the words of Jesus, in this world there are also the
children of the devil, so we can’t say that all men are children of God. |
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The
apostle Paul called that false Jewish prophet who was on the isle of Cyprus, whose
name was Bar-Jesus (who sought to turn the proconsul Sergius Paulus away from
the faith), ‘child of the devil’ (Acts 13:10). We know that the false
prophets are children of the devil because they don’t believe in the Son of
God and they try to turn believers away from the faith. |
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The new birth
is a real experience, of which one is perfectly aware when it occurs and he
is sure he has experienced it, even though we can’t explain exactly how it
took place in our life because it is an impenetrable work accomplished by God
through His Word and His Holy Spirit. We can compare it to a dead person’s
coming out of the tomb where he had been buried; to a prisoner’s coming out
of a prison; to a person’s coming out of a very dark room where he was kept
for years; to the recovery of sight experienced by a man born blind; to the
deliverance from strong and heavy chains. In other words, we mean that those
who have experienced it know very well what they felt when they were
regenerated, because it was an experience that has changed radically their
life. What a man experiences through the new birth is salvation, the
forgiveness of all his sins, the disappearance of the sense of guilt, which
torments those who are without God. For this reason whoever is born again is
sure he has been saved, he has been washed from all his sins, and his conscience
doesn’t accuse him any longer. And all this produces in him a great joy immediately,
a great joy which gushes out of Christ, who has come to him and made His home
with him (in his heart); as well as a great and true peace which comes from
Christ too. So he becomes a child of God; how? We have already said how, that
is, through repentance and faith in Christ. But is he sure he has become a
child of God? Of course. On what basis can he say that he is a child of God?
Because the Word of God says: “But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John
1:12), and also: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1); and because of the witness of the
Holy Spirit who dwells in his heart, as it is written: “For you did not
receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of
adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15-16 – NKJV). Therefore,
he is sure he is an heir of God and joint heir with Christ; he is sure he has
eternal life because he has in his heart Him who is the eternal life (1 John
5:20), and as a result he knows that when he dies he will go to heaven to be
with Christ and the departed saints and there he will be waiting for the
resurrection. Furthermore, we say that all those who believe, being born
again, are God’s priests, for Peter, after saying at the beginning of his
first epistle: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4), says: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Do you understand? All those who have been born
again are priests of God. And therefore, all those who believe in the Son of
God are priests. And, still according to the Scripture, all those who believe
have been made kings and will reign with Christ on the earth, as it is
written that Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God” (Revelation
1:6 – NKJV) and “we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10 – NKJV). |
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How many people can be born again
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At this
point you may ask: ‘How many people can be born again?’ All those who wish to
be regenerated. We would like to make it clear, however, that by this
expression we don’t mean that those who are born again have experienced the
new birth because it was they who determined to be regenerated; not at all,
because those who are born again were born of the will of God, as it is
written: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13), and also: “Of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures” (James 1:18). |
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By that
expression we simply mean that we don’t know the number of those whom God
predestined to be regenerated through His Word, and thus we proclaim to all
men that they must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. |
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How born again people are known
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Now, how
are the children of God known in this world? How can we know whether one is
born of God or not? |
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● Those who are born of God are new creatures,
in whose life the old things (that is, the old and wicked habits) have passed
away and all things have become new, as it is written: “Therefore if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Therefore, if one says that
he is a Christian, but he is not a new creature (or creation), he is not born
of God. Many people claim they are Christians, but they are not new creatures
at all because their licentious and wicked conduct shows that they are still
children of disobedience and slaves of all kinds of lusts; among them are
those who worship idols – which they call ‘sacred statues and images’ - and
go into ecstasies over their idols. John says: “ He that committeth sin is of
the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning” (1 John 3:8), and also:
“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:
whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not
his brother” (1 John 3:10), and again: “He that saith, I know him, and
keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John
2:4). Therefore, all those who refuse to obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ are not born of God and thus are not children of God. |
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● Those who are born of God believe that
Jesus is the Christ, for it is written: “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” (1 John 5:1) – the term Christ derives from
the Greek christos which means
‘Anointed one’ – therefore, all those who don’t believe that Jesus is the
Christ (or the Messiah, a term which derives from a Hebrew word meaning
‘Anointed one’) are not born of God and thus are not children of God. |
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● Those who are born of God loves God and
the brethren because it is written: “Beloved, let us love one another:
for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth
God” (1 John 4:7). Those who love the brethren in deed and in truth are born
of God and know God because God is love, but “he that loveth not his brother
abideth in death … knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 3:14; 4:8). This
means that those who hate us, even though they say they are Christians, are
not born of God. John says: “We know that we have passed from death unto
life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). Before knowing God, we did
not love the brethren, we did not like them, we did not like to talk with
them, to visit and help them, because we abode in death; we who were dead
wished to stay and talk with those who were dead like us, we were proud to be
friends with sinners and we loved their perverse way of life and their way of
talking. But thanks be to God who has regenerated us; the day on which we were
born again our mind was renewed by the Holy Spirit and we began to love the
saints, through the love of God which was poured out in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit. Why then, even in this country, do many people, who say they are
Christians, hate us, despise us, look unfavourably on us, detest to stay with
us and to talk with us, and call us ‘a sect’ as if we were the followers of
an impostor? The reason why they behave in this way is that they abide in
darkness, even though they say they are in the light; they belong to this
world and hate us because we are not of the world, for Jesus said: “If ye
were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth
you” (John 15:19). Brethren, Christ has rescued us from this evil world,
that’s why those who are of this dark world hate us; they say, ‘We also are Christians
like you and God is our Father also, so we have the same Father,’ but they
are not of God but of the devil. |
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● Those who are born of God are sure all
their sins have been forgiven them and they have eternal life, because
they have believed in the Son of God, as it is written: “All the prophets
testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of
sins through his name” (Acts 10:43 – NIV) and also: “In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). Therefore, those who are of God have
been washed from their sins because they were forgiven them through faith in
Christ. All those who say that when they die they will go to a place called
purgatory in order to be purified from their sins (or rather, to discharge
their debts of temporal punishment) are not of God and thus are not members
of the Body of Christ, for the Scripture says: “But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Purgatory
doesn’t exist and those who believe in it deceive themselves. All those who
go to the priest to confess their sins because they think that in this way
their sins are forgiven are not of God and deceive themselves because the
priest can’t forgive any man the sins he has committed against God. The
Scripture teaches that God alone can forgive a man his sins, as it is written
that He is the One “who forgives all your iniquities” (Psalm 103:3 – NKJV).
Those who go to confess their sins to a priest are not purified from their sins
at all, for they still have consciousness of sins, because a man must confess
his sins to God in order to be forgiven and regenerated, as it is written: “I
said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ And You forgave the
iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5 – NKJV). Those who are of God have eternal
life because they have believed in the Son of God; as Jesus said: “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John
6:47), and John wrote to us: “These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal
life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).
If anyone says that he is a Christian, but he says that he doesn’t have
eternal life, he is not of God; many people think we are presumptuous because
we say that we have eternal life; however, what we say is the truth, for it
is written: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11). Those who say that they are
Christians, but in the meantime they say that they don’t have eternal life
because they are doing their best in order to deserve it (or to buy it) are
not of God; eternal life cannot be deserved by doing good works because it is
not on sale; eternal life is not the wages that God gives to the sinner who
makes every effort to gain it, but it is His gift that He gives freely to all
those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, as it is written: “The gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). |