The New Birth
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one
according to His great mercy having regenerated us to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been
kept in Heaven for you, the ones in the power of God being
guarded through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time;" 1 Peter 1:3-5. (KJ3)
The new birth is something God's Spirit does with us when we
receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Some people think
that they cannot believe in Jesus and be saved because there are so
many things in the Bible which they do not understand. But Jesus
does not demand that we must have much knowledge of the Bible
before he gives us the eternal life. It is on the contrary. The new
birth is a prerequisite of that we can be able to understand the Bible.
God is not the author of confusion but of peace. 1 Cor. 14: 33.
Peace means "everything in its right order". Therefore, when we
are born again, he also wants to adjust the soul and the body, so
that it is ordering in God's temple, for we are that. 1 Cor. 3:16-17.
2 Cor. 6:16.
To be able to live a normal Christian life, it must be peace in our
soul. The intellect must have both the will and the feelings under
control. If the will has the advantage over the intellect, then it
leads to foolish deeds and foolish talking, and if we let the feelings
lead our life, then it will go up and down according to the feelings
change.
Yet, it is an im****tant exception when our will must have the
control over both intellect and feelings. It concerns our relation to
God's word and the Salvation through Jesus Christ. We cannot by
our own intellect understand how it happens when we receive the
new life in Christ and be born anew. Nevertheless, we can through
our will leave that to Jesus, and let him carry out what we do not
understand.
If you let your will get the control over both your intellect and
feelings, and say to Jesus, I understand very little of the Bible, but
now I will believe in you, and I pray to you, forgive me all my sins.
Then Jesus is happy and says: If you really want to be mine, then I
will forgive all your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9. Then you are also happy and say, thank dear Jesus that
you have saved me! The Holy Spirit has executed his work, and you
are born anew of the Spirit. John 3:8.
This may seem unreasonable. Many think it is idiotic, but it is not.
That is most sensible you can do.
Please, read 1 John 1:8-9, 5:10-15. This we can take as a word of
Jesus, for himself has let his apostle John write this for the purpose
that we may know that we have eternal life, we who believe in the
name of God's Son.
The new birth is no adoption. If the new birth is an adoption, then
God's children are not his own children, only adopted children.
Then God is not our Father, only our adoptive Father. Who is our
real Father? When we are born anew, then something other happens.
Then the veil disappears, which caused that we did not understand
the Bible. Not so that we understand everything at once, but we
come to understand the one bible-word after the other that we did
not understand earlier.
"But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading
of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes
away. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the
Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
2 Cor. 3:14-17. "Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those
who perish; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of
the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God, should not dawn on them." 2 Cor. 4:3-4.
When the Holy Spirit interprets God's word to us and reveals the truth
to us, it becomes so unaffected and easy. Such things that learned
theologians are unable to understand. The Holy Spirit interprets in an
easy and unaffected way. Jesus says in Matt. 11:25, "I thank you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the
wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants."
When we have received Jesus as our Saviour and have been born
anew, it does not imply that we are 'finished'. This is only the first
step on the way of faith. The new birth is the beginning of our life
as Christians.
The salvation is connected to baptism in water. On the places in the
Bible where the baptism is mentioned, we see that conversion is
connected with baptism. When people come to believe in Jesus, then
they may be baptized. Please, read about Saul's conversion and
baptism, in Acts 9:3-19, and how Cornelius' and his family be saved
and baptized, in Acts 10th chapter. The jailer in Philippi and his
family were baptized at once, though it was right in the middle of
the night. Acts 16:25-34. Here try some people find sup****t for the
infant baptism. Perhaps it was a baby in the jailer's family. But we
cannot build our faith on "perhaps". We must hold us to God's word.
Who has the right to baptize? Those who have a living faith in Jesus
and themselves are baptized according to the Bible's teaching.
The salvation is not a matter of sentiment though it can influence the
feelings. If we have no 'feelings of salvation' it is safely to know that
the salvation is not founded on our feelings, but on Jesus and his work
on the cross.
Allan Svensson
If you have any questions after reading of this article
Please, visit my Web Site
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM
God is the Love, but God's Love does not hinder us to study God's word.
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/LOVE.HTM
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