“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 (ESV)
Have you ever thought that God has some type of heavenly scale and when you reached the Pearly Gates, He was going to weigh your good deeds against your bad deeds and if your good deeds somehow outweighed your bad deeds, you’d get a ticket to enter in?
Have you ever thought that because you were a good person and went to church and even believed in God that you would get some kind of free pass into heaven?
I used to think all of those things. That is until I was born again.
Lately, I’ve been really evaluating my heart, my motivation and my pursuits in light of God’s calling on my life and I’m convinced that the most important thing I can convey to others is that we all must be born again.
Many of us are Johnny on the spot to tell people about Jesus, how much He loves us and how wonderful He is…and we need to be busy doing just that. But if we don’t tell them how His death on the cross can affect their lives and how they can have a personal relationship with Him, then we are not sharing how it is that they can enter into the family of God.
Jesus didn’t die for church attendance. He didn’t die so we could fulfill some type of manmade ritualistic religious requirements. He didn’t die so we could have a certain type of music played in church that would satisfy the masses. He didn’t die so that we could be good and benevolent people. He didn’t die so we could find a denomination that suited our preferences and decide that we would identify ourselves as a specific denomination.
He died because we were already dead. He rose because our dead human spirits needed to be made alive and He alone could defeat the power of spiritual and physical death.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—” Ephesians 2:1-2 (ESV)
In John 3:2 Nicodemus made his way to Jesus and started telling Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
And he was right. Jesus was sent by God.
When Nicodemus said, WE, he was most likely referring to all of his pharisee buddies…and maybe even the community at large. But Jesus redirected the conversation to deal with the heart of one of the most religious men of his day. The problem was not that they didn’t believe that Jesus must have come from God. The problem was that they were too religious to see what was missing.
You see, we live in a culture of convenient Christianity. It’s so easy to believe that because we believe in God and because we go to church and because we are somewhat morally conscience, that we are Christians. But unless we are born again, we cannot see the Kingdom of God.
We can be very religious, but very lost. Believing in God, but not really to the saving of our souls. Saying we’re saved, yet have never been born again.
You see, believing in God does not secure eternal life. The Bible warns us in James 2:19, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.”
Today, I’m writing this because I desperately want to see people come to know Christ. Not just know about Him, but really know Him. And that can only happen when we are born again. When our dead human spirit is made alive and then we can understand what the Bible says that those who worship God, must worship Him in spirit and truth.
So, how do we know if we’ve been born again or if we’re just religious?
“Therefore, if anyone isin Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
This is a TEST VERSE as well as a PROOF VERSE for salvation.
PROOF:
If you’ve been born again, you have had the Holy Spirit take up residence in your heart and you have been changed. You aren’t perfect, but the passion and pursuit of your heart and life is now Christ. His Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you belong to Him. (Romans 8:16), and the way Jesus described the results of the BORN AGAIN experience will be evident in your life.
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8
An invisible wind wisps through the trees and stirs the air. You can’t see the wind…but you definitely can see the results of the wind.
The same is true for all who have been born again.
TEST:
If you have not been changed, you have not been saved. It’s really very simple but we complicate it with religiosity and requirements that find no base in Scripture.
The most important thing I could ever tell you sweet friend, is that you must be born again.
That takes place when you surrender all you are to all Jesus is accepting what He did on the cross in payment for your sin with a heart willing to repent and turn to God and make Him Lord of your life.
I LOVE how John 3:16 reads in the Amplified and gives us all the biblical meaning of ‘believe’… “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”
QUESTION: HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN? I’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR TESTIMONY!
To God be all the glory!
Great things He has done! 😉
Stephanie, this post was significant as are all of yours. It’s so important for us to not depend upon our performance for our salvation and entrance into heaven. I did that very thing, like you, until I received Christ at age 18. Up to then, I thought I had to earn my way with good works and by being perfect so that God could love me. I had a scale in my heart that weighed my good and bad deeds. I thought I would end up with more good deeds, but there was always more weight on the “bad deeds” side. I felt hopeless and helpless. But then I heard clearly the message of God’s grace which offered the free gift of salvation through Jesus’s death and resurrection. I had no problem acknowledging I was a sinner and because I longed for forgiveness and freedom, I received Christ on October 1st, 1967. What joy (and yes, challenges too) since then but I know the assurance that my salvation is based on Jesus’s robe of righteousness, not measuring on a scale! Praise the Lord!
Kathy,
Thank you so much for sharing your testimony! LOVED seeing how God is at work in your life. I was an October baby too. I was saved on October 11th, 1987. So glad our salvation doesn’t depend on that silly scale. We’d all be hopelessly and eternally lost. But praise Jesus for the cross and for the resurrection. Now, because of Christ, we can be eternally His! 😉
I was raised in a Methodist church, but I turned away from that way of life long ago. I thought I had a lot of reasons for losing my faith and turning away from God. It was not until I started attending Journey Church in Jacksonville that I found my re-newed faith. I came to realize that I needed God back in my life. When I joined this church I was a lost soul with no faith. That was 4 yrs ago and my life has been forever changed in these past 4 years. I have a LOVE of Christ and a New undersatnding about what real Faith is. I was Born Again and I was Baptized last Aug. That day was the result of 3 years of prayer, heart searching and deep digging into my life and my choices. I came to realize when I was growing up that I did not have a TRUE understanding of what God had done for me. Today I live my life totally differently. I attend church regularly and it is not because I HAVE to it is because I WANT to. I have a different way of looking at life and I know as long as I keep praying and have Faith that I can make my life better everyday. I am learning more about myself everyday and God has a Plan for me and my life. I struggle sometimes but I know now I am never ALONE. That gives me great comfort and I share my LOVE of GOD with everyone I know and isn’t that what is all about in the long run ……spreading His Love and being his Hands and Feet. God Bless you and Thank you for your friendship and Love Steph.
Denise, I LOVED reading your testimony and seeing how the Lord has worked in your life! You are such a gift and you and your hubby are amazing! I love how you said you that was 4 years ago and your life has been forever changed…and now go to church not because you HAVE to but because you WANT to. Jesus changes everything, doesn’t He! He is SO good to us!
Wonderful, gut-truth post my friend! Hugs and blessings, Cindy
Thanks for popping over Cindy! The other day I heard a famous newscaster say that if we are good and live a moral life, that we will get into heaven. My heart broke. It was after I had written this and I thought about how many people believe that when the answer is in the Word of God.